♦LIBRARY OF CONGRESS*! 
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{ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. J 



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THE KINGDOM OF GOD: 
A DISCOURSE, 

PREACHED BEFORE 

THE SYNOD OF NEW JERSEY, 

OCTOBER 17, 1849. 



CHARLES K. IMBRIE, 

PASTOR OF THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, RAHWAY, N. J. 



PUBLISHED AT THE REQUEST OF SEVERAL MEMBERS OF THE SYNOD, 
AND OTHERS. 




NEW YORK: 
PUBLISHED BY FRANKLIN KNIGHT. 

1850. 



x* 



Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by 

FRANKLIN KNIGHT, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District 
of New York. 



R. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER, 
112 FULTON STREET, NEW YORK. 



PREFACE. 



The following discourse has thus long been with- 
held, because its presentation to the public was thought 
unnecessary among the numerous valuable works on 
the same subject, which are within the easy reach of 
all. It is now published in compliance with the con- 
tinued solicitations of many brethren on both sides 
of the questions discussed, who have kindly expressed 
a wish to see it in print. A second object is to correct 
the various misrepresentations which have appeared 
in the public journals and elsewhere, by letting the 
discourse speak for itself. 

To those " who have studied the point," the discourse 
will offer nothing new ; its single aim was at first, and 
is now, to arouse attention to a subject of growing 
importance. 

The sermon itself appears now in very much the 
same shape in which it was originally delivered. A 
few texts of scripture have been added in their appro- 
priate places. 

The accompanying notes were subsequently written, 
to meet some of the leading objections which have 
been suggested to the author and others, against the 
views which the discourse brings forward. May God 
speed only the truth ! 

Rahway, Jan. 9, 1850 



/ 



A DISCOURSE. 



Daniel xii. 4. 

" But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal 

THE BOOK, EVEN TO THE TIME OF THE END '. MANY SHALL RUN 
TO AND FRO, AND KNOWLEDGE SHALL BE INCREASED." 

Here is a painful darkness, relieved by a 
most cheering promise. So God makes the 
light and shade to mingle together. The 
day of clouds is not, you observe, always to 
continue. When the sun is just sinking to 
his setting, the shadows are to flee away, 
and the heavens glow into noontide splendor. 
And so it shall come to pass that at " eve- 
ning time, at least, there shall be light." 

The knowledge here spoken of is know- 
ledge respecting the kingdom of Christ. 
This is generally admitted. Indeed the con- 
text shows it. The "words shut up/' and 
1* 



IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

the "knowledge to be increased," must refer 
to the same thing. Now, Daniel is speaking 
of the final deliverance of the Jewish people, 
and this event is usually believed to be intro- 
ductory to the consummation of the king- 
dom. His prophetic years, also, respecting this 
event are shown to synchronize with the 
continuance of the beast and the false pro- 
phet of the Apocalypse. These three grand 
events have, therefore, been usually asso- 
ciated together as the triple signal for the 
dawn of the " latter day" glory. 

We consider it, then, as determined that 
it is not religious knowledge in general, so 
much as the particular knowledge of the na- 
ture, and time, and accompaniments of Christ's 
coming kingdom upon earth, which receives 
here the promise of increase. 

With this understanding, the text dis- 
closes several highly interesting particulars, 

1. That, until the time should draw near, 
an obscurity more or less deep should rest 
upon the details of the coming kingdom. 
The church should still " search what, or 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 7 

what manner of time the spirit of Christ 
which was in the prophets did signify, w 7 hen 
it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ 
and the glory which should follow." Now, 
the sufferings have been manifested ; but 
the glory is not yet made evident. The 
cherubim bend inquiringly towards the 
mercy seat. " Wherefore, brethren, let us 
gird up the loins of our mind, be sober, and 
hope, to the end, for the grace that is to be 
brought unto you at the revelation of 
Jesus Christ." 1 Peter i. 11-13. 

2. As the time of the end should draw 
near, the promise assures us just as distinctly 
that God would crown this anxious scrutiny 
with increasing success. The thick veil, 
upon which so many eager eyes have been 
so long straining, at length gradually grows 
more and more translucent, until the mys- 
tery of the sheckinah (the tabernacling of 
God with men) becomes effulgently revealed 
by its own immediate presence. " The 
seventh angel sounds " and the kingdom is 
come. Then, immediately the " temple of 



8 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

God is opened in Heaven, the veil is gone, 
and the ark of His covenant is seen." Rev. 
xi. 19. " They shall see, eye to eye, when 
the Lord shall bring again Zion." Is. 
lii. 8. 

3. That this progress in knowledge is to be 
effected in conjunction with human effort to 
understand the Scriptures. "Many shall 
run to and fro, and knowledge shall be 
increased." That is, as Michaelis explains 
it — " Many shall give their sedulous atten- 
tion to the understanding of these things." 
They shall search the word of the Lord for 
light : and hence their success. Let me 
confirm this interpretation by a single quo- 
tation from the prophet Amos. " Behold the 
days come, saith the Lord God, that I will 
send a famine in the land ; not a famine- of 
bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing 
the words of the Lord : and they shall wander 
from sea to sea, and from the north even to 
the east ; they shall run to and fro to seek 
the word of the Lord, and shall not find it." 
Amos viii. 11, 12. 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 9 

In the present case, however, the result is 
reversed. They " shall run to and fro, and 
shall find it" — knowledge shall be increased. 

You will note, then, that as the kingdom 
draws near, human effort to understand is 
both stipulated and made obligatory, in order 
to success. When the church has arrived 
upon the very borders of the inheritance, the 
servant of God resolutely sets himself to go, 
step by step, up the mount Nebo (i. e. pro- 
phecy), and at each ascent the goodly land 
rises upon His view with greater breadth 
and distinctness. 

Fathers and Brethren! We are at this 
moment arrived at the "time of the end/ 7 We 
run no risk of being charged with rashness 
in this assertion, for it is generally admitted 
by the wisest and best of God's servants. 
Indeed the missionary operations of the 
church have received much of their present 
vigor from the light which has been thrown 
upon this fact. Besides, the " signs of the 
times" remarkably confirm this usual inter- 
pretation of prophecy. 



10 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

To us, then, the promise of the text ap- 
peals with peculiar force. This is the time 
of the end — the time of promised light. We 
are the very men to whom it assigns a duty : 
" to run to and fro to seek the word of the 
Lord." Whatever neglect of this subject 
may have been tolerated in past time, our 
excuses for such neglect are taken away. 
We stand at a most critical period with 
regard to the approaching kingdom, and the 
church seeks knowledge of that kingdom at 
the priest's lips. 

At this juncture it becomes an interesting 
question, whether all attainable light re- 
specting this kingdom is enjoyed. Is the 
whole active Christian world agreed respect- 
ing its nature and accompaniments ? If not, 
how far are we agreed ? And what remains 
yet dark that study and discussion may, by 
God's blessing, clear up ? These, brethren, 
it is thought, are all important questions. 
We see not how they can be deemed either 
impertinent or frivolous. 

These questions derive additional interest 
from the fact, that the church professes at 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 11 

last to be in earnest in fulfilling her great 
commission, The subject of missions every- 
where engages attention. She prays daily, 
" thy kingdom come." She is girding on 
her armor to go forth to the war. God, in 
the meantime, is shaking his hand over the 
nations. Surely now, if ever, the true na- 
ture, and accompaniments of Christ's coming 
kingdom demand our attention and settled 
understanding. Questions which affect these 
points may not be dismissed in haste. We 
may not let them lapse into neglect. Every 
consideration which makes effort for the 
conversion of men desirable, makes it also 
desirable that every such effort should be 
guided by scriptural light. The subject of 
missions can rise to its proper importance, 
only w T hen the church is made to see the 
hand of her Lord guiding her step by step. 

Let it be supposed, then, that the church's 
present light concerning the kingdom is in- 
complete. Let it be supposed that there are 
important differences of view, upon the sub- 
ject of her great commission, amongst those 
who are equally distinguished in their zeal 



12 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

for the truth and for godliness. What, under 
these circumstances, is her duty ? Her duty 
seems plain. She may not shift off this sub- 
ject : she must come back to some starting 
point where all stand together, and from this 
point she must, — it is her bounden duty, — 
with her eye raised to God for light, and with 
the word of God in her hands, examine, and 
discuss, and determine the path of her feet. 

Under the increasing conviction, then, 
brethren, that the present juncture imposes 
this step upon us, let me here before you 
repeat these questions : 

Are we all agreed respecting "this gospel 
of the kingdom, which must be preached as 
a witness amongst all nations ?" 

If not, how far are we agreed ? 

And finally, upon what points of difference 
is it desirable that critical skill and ministe- 
rial study should be brought to bear ? 

I shall first briefly state some points upon 
which we are all agreed, I do this to pre- 
vent misunderstanding in the outset. It is 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD, 13 

by no means uncommon to argue upon the 
supposition, that a denial of these points is 
involved in the controversy upon those 
which succeed. 

1. First, then, we are all agreed that there 
will certainly be set up a glorious kingdom 
upon earth, and that there will be but one 
such kingdom. Moreover, it is a kingdom 
" to come" — a time when " the kingdom and 
dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom 
under the whole heaven, shall be given to 
the people of the saints of the Most High." 
Dan. vii. 27. This is God's grand object 
in His dealings with us — the redemption of 
this ruined world. We are agreed that the 
" son of man" — the " second Adam" — the 
" man Christ Jesus," is to reign " king of 
kings" and Lord of lords, over the whole 
earth. " All nations shall serve him." Ps. 
Ixxii. 11. — That it is to be an everlasting 
kingdom. " His kingdom is an everlasting 
kingdom, and of his dominion there shall be 
no end." Dan. vii. 27 : Luke i. 33. — And 
that it is to be a Holy kingdom : " They 
2 



14 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

shall not hurt nor destroy in all His holy 
mountain, for the earth shall be full of the 
knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover 
the sea. 7 ' Is. xi. 9. 

So have prayed both Jew and Gentile : 
" Let the peoples praise thee, O God; let all 
the peoples praise thee. Then shall the earth 
yield her increase ; and God, even our own 
God, shall bless us. God shall bless us, and 
all the ends of the earth shall fear him/' 
Ps. lxvii. 6, 7, 8. 

And again : " Thy kingdom come. Thy 
will be done upon the earth as in Heaven." 
Matth. vi. 10. 

2. We are all agreed as to the way by 
which God saves men, and introduces them 
into His kingdom. " Grace and truth come 
by Jesus Christ, and in Him is life." John 
i. 17. 

The Divine Word becomes incarnate and 
reveals to us the invisible Father. As Medi- 
ator in human flesh He is God to us : "No 
man hath seen God at any time ; the only 
begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 15 

Father, He hath revealed Him." John i. 
18. We are agreed that He is a crucified 
Christ for the sins of all His people equally, 
whether Jew or Gentile; for "there is no dif- 
ference, as ail have sinned and come short 
of the glory of God." Rom. iii. 22, 23. 
Hence, " we preach Christ crucified, to the 
Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Greeks 
foolishness ; but unto them which are called 
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the wisdom of 
God and the power of God." 1 Cor. i. 23. 
He is Spiritual Life to all equally ; for 
" of His fulness have all we received, and 
grace for grace/*' John i. 16. And He 
raises all up at the last day : "He that be- 
lieveth in me, though he were dead, yet shall 
he live; and he that is living and believeth 
in me, shall never die." John xi. 25. We 
all believe this. For though '-'we shall not 
all sleep, we shall all be changed," 1 Cor. 
xv. 51, and hence, either by resurrection 
or translation, all His people shall " know the 
power of Christ's resurrection," and " attain 
unto the resurrection of the dead." Phil. iii. 
10, 11. 



16 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

3. We are all agreed, that the offer of the 
gospel is in the same terms for all, whether 
Jew or Gentile : "Christ is the end of the 
law for righteousness to every one that believ- 
eth." Rom. x.#4. " We believe" (says the Jew) 
"that ive shall be saved by the grace of our 
Lord Jesus Christ, even as they." Acts 
xv. 11. — As to the way of life, then, all are 
on the same level : there is no difference : 
" In Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor 
Greek, neither bond nor free, neither male 
nor female." Gal. iii. 28. "One Lord, one 
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of 
all, who is above all, and through all, and in 
us alL" Eph. iv. 5, 6. — And when Christ 
presents His church, He presents it as one 
church : " a glorious church, not having spot 
or wrinkle, or any such thing." Eph. v. 2T. 
There is "one fold and one shepherd." 
John x. 16. — We have no dispute, then, re- 
specting the offer or the terms of the way of 
life. 

*" 4. We are all agreed that mere nationality, 
without conversion, secures no future bless- 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 17 

ings. A man must be " born again" to 
inherit the promises to the Jews or Gentiles. 
For, " in Christ Jesus, it is neither circum- 
cision nor uncircumcision, but a new crea- 
ture that availeth." Gal. vi. 15. Hence, 
though all the natural seed of Abraham 
" have not obtained that which they seek 
after, yet the election hath obtained it, and 
the rest are blinded." Rom. xi. 7. Yet, on 
the other hand, " though some did not believe, 
their unbelief shall not make the faith of 
God without effect." Rom. iii. 3. 

5. We are all agreed, that the church has 
received a general commission to publish the 
gospel among all nations. There is no dis- 
pute here. Her duty is simple and impera- 
tive. Every man and every church is be- 
holden to our Lord for the fulfilment of that 
obligation, to " Go unto all nations and 
preach the gospel to every creature." Mark 
xvi. 15. 

6. I think I may venture to add a sixth 
particular. We are at least generally agreed, 

2* 



18 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

that God has given to his Jewish people a 
prominence in spreading the knowledge of 
salvation through the world, and that this is 
true in every era of their history. It was 
so, first, as they were the depositaries of 
the truth, "To them were committed the 
oracles of God." Rom. iii. 2. Secondly, Their 
very fall was for the same purpose. " Their 
diminishing has been the riches of the Gen- 
tiles." Rom. xi. 12. The whirlwind that threw 
down the cedar of Lebanon, scattered also its 
seeds to take root in every land. And thirdly, 
their restoration will in some way wonderfully 
secure the same great object. It will be 
the prelude of millennial glory. " The re- 
ceiving of them shall be as life from the 
dead." Rom. xi. 15. The tree that was fallen 
down shall " strike root downwards and bear 
fruit upwards." " He shall cause them that 
come of Jacob to take root. Israel shall blos- 
som and bud, and fill the face of the world 
with fruit." Is. xxvii. 6. 

So far, then, we are agreed. We receive 
these things (leaving the last out of view) as 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 19 

among those " certain doctrines so settled by 
the faith of the church that they are no 
longer open questions. They are finally ad- 
judged and determined beyond all rational or 
innocent dispute." They are now supplying 
all the stimulus to the Christian's exertions to 
save souls from death. I repeat it, so far we 
are agreed. I beseech you, then, let not these 
questions be confounded with those which 
follow. 

But at this point there is discovered a re- 
markable divergence. The friends of Christ 
and the gospel separate into two distinct 
bodies. There are questions upon which, 
against the usually received interpretation, 
w T e see a strong band of able, self-denying 
men opposing a different interpretation. 
Their zeal is wide awake. They point you 
to a host of witnesses for their belief in every 
past age of the church. They call on their 
brethren as with the voice of a trumpet. 

Now, these interpretations which they 
propose are generally regarded with cold- 
ness. Some affect to sneer at them. They 



20 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

are systematically excluded from most of 
our popular religious journals. Many regard 
them as not at all practical. Brethren, I 
know not what you think, but to my mind 
the question of the truth or the falsity of 
these views enters into the very life of the 
church's progress, of her comfort, of her 
proper success. I confess that I cannot see 
how they can be neglected. Bear with me 
then, while in the next place, I present 
three of these points with a little detail. 

I. The first respects what has been called 
the " Bible Law of Missions. " # Is there 
any such law ? What is it ? Is it indispen- 
sable ? Or may it be disregarded? These 
questions divide us. 

On the one side, the practical belief is 
that in efforts at evangelizing 'the world, 

* We take pleasure in referring the reader on this sub- 
ject to the first volume of the Jewish Chronicle for a series 
of excellent articles, doubtless from the pen of the late 
editor, the Rev. John Lillie. At the same time we ex- 
press our obligations to this source for the aid by which we 
are enabled to state succinctly several of the points at issue 
on this question. 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 21 

the distinction between Jew and Gentile is 
to be discarded. Prominent efforts, and in- 
deed even separate missions for the Jews, 
if not scouted, are undervalued. It is inti- 
mated that the middle wall of partition is 
broken down ; that Gentiles are admitted as 
fellow heirs ; and hence, that the Jew, in 
the eye of the gospel, has lost both his na- . 
tionality and his privileges. 

On the other side, it is maintained that 
the Jews are to be regarded now, as they 
have ever been, as "the children of the king- 
dom ;" whereas, Gentiles are they who shall 
" come from the north and from the south, 
from the east and from the west, and sit 
down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in 
the kingdom of Heaven." Matt. viii. 12. 
Paul declares them still " beloved for the 
fathers' sakes," — and " the gifts and calling of 
God are without repentance." Rom. xi. 
28, 29. These men say " that Jesus Christ 
was a minister of the circumcision, for the 
truth of God, to confirm the promises made 
unto the fathers" Rom. xv. 8, whereas 
the Gentiles are received as "aliens into 



22 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

the commonwealth of Israel :" Eph. ii. 12. 
—that the Jew has "much advantage every 
way:" Rom. iii, 1,2. "to him pertaineth 
the adoption and the glory and the cove- 
nants and the giving of the law, and the 
service of God, and the promises,' 1 ' Rom. 
ix. 4, — and hence, that in this sense there is 
a marked distinction. 

One side argues, because " Christ cruci- 
fied is the wisdom of God and the power of 
God" to both Jew and Greek, Rom. i. 16, 
that, therefore, when the church, recog- 
nising, in her efforts at conversion, no dis- 
tinction, or indeed even practically passing 
by the Jew, simply proclaims the gospel 
indiscriminately, she has done her duty. 

The other declares that "the gospel of 
Christ is the wisdom of God and the power 
of God unto salvation to every one that 
believeth, but yet to the Jew first." Rom. i. 
16. These men point us to Christ's rule to 
his apostles as imperative in all ages and of 
universal obligation. " This gospel must 
be preached among all nations beginning at 
Jerusalem!' They hence argue that " it is 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 23 

necessary that the gospel should first be 
spoken unto the Jew/' We are pressed by 
the fact that the first preachers of the gospel 
followed this rule invariably — followed it 
after repulse upon repulse — followed it al- 
though (as in the case of Paul and Bar- 
nabas) apostles to the Gentiles themselves, 
■ — followed it just as much as ever, even after 
that memorable announcement : " It was 
necessary that the word of God should first 
have been spoken to you ; but seeing ye put 
it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy 
of everlasting life, lo! we turn to the Gen- 
tiles," Acts xiii. 46, as their proceedings 
in the very next city, Iconium, testify, Acts 
xiv. 1,— followed it up to the last voice of 
warning which closes the Bible history. 
Acts xxviii. 20-31. 

The one side declares that the threaten- 
ings and the rewards of the gospel are 
presented with equal fulness and in the same 
way to Jew and Gentile indiscriminately. 

The other preaches that God, in his judg- 
ment, will render "indignation and wrath, 
tribulation and anguish to every soul of man, 



24 THE KINGDOM OF GOB. 

but of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile;" 
—"but glory, honor, and peace to every man 
that worketh good, but to the Jew first, and 
also to the Gentile." Rom. ii. 9, 10. 

On the one side, a system of interpretation 
is adopted, which, while it assigns to the 
Jews, literally and fully, all the special evils 
pronounced against them, melts away or 
transfers to the Gentile church all the Jews' 
special promised blessings. 

The other declares, "Thus saiththe Lord; 
like as I have brought all this great evil 
upon this people, so will I bring upon them 
all the good that I have promised them." 
" And it shall come to pass, that like as I 
have watched over them, to pluck up, and 
to break down, and to throw down, and to 
destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over 
them to build and to plant, saith the Lord." 
Jer. xxxii. 42 — xxxi. 28. 

The one side maintains that under the 
gospel the peculiar privileges and relations of 
the Jewish people to God are abolished. 

The other declares, " Thus saith the Lord ; 
I will forgive their iniquity, and I will re- 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 25 

member their sin no more. Thus saith 
the Lord ; which giveth the sun for a light 
by day, and the ordinances of the moon and 
of the stars for a light by night, which di- 
videth the sea when the waves thereof roar ; 
the Lord of hosts is his name, If those or- 
dinances depart from before me, saith the 
Lord, then the seed of Israel shall cease from 
being a nation before me for ever. Thus 
saith the Lord ; if heaven above can be 
measured, and the foundation of the earth 
searched out beneath, I will also cast off the 
seed of Israel for all that they have done, 
saith the Lord'' Jer. xxxi. 34-37. 

One side declares that " the relations of 
the Jews to the coming kingdom of God, as 
unfolded in the scheme of redemption, are 
precisely the same with those of the Gen- 
tiles." 

The other asks with Paul, " If the fall of 
them be the riches of the world, and the di- 
minishing of them be the riches of the Gen- 
tiles, how much more their fulness ? For if 
the casting away of them be the reconciling 
of the world, what shall the receiving of 

3 



26 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

them be, but life from the dead ? For if 
the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy ; 
and if the root be holy so are the branches." 
Rom. xi. 12-16. 

And what, brethren, is the result of all 
this ? Just what might be expected. 

On the one side, an occasional prayer for 
the Jew discharges all obligation. 

On the other, special missions to the Jew 
are regarded as of indispensable importance. 
With the great apostle to the Gentiles, they 
cry, " Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer 
to God for Israel is, that they might be 
saved." Rom. x. 1. 

The one side declares that "in missionary 
discourses it is unnecessary to discuss the 
question whether Palestine is to be again 
occupied by Jews." 

The other repels the assertion with a 
" Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, 
Behold I will gather them out of all countries 
whither I have driven them in mine anger, 
and in my fury and in great wrath ; and I 
will bring them unto this place, and I will 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 27 

cause them to dwell safely : And I will bring 
again the captivity of my people of Israel, 
and they shall build the waste cities and 
inhabit them ; and they shall plant vineyards 
and drink the wine thereof; they shall also 
make gardens and eat the fruit of them. And 
I will plant them upon their land, and they 
shall no more be pulled up out of their land 
which I have given them, saith the Lord thy 
God." "And I will cleanse them from all 
their iniquity, whereby they have sinned 
against me ; and I will pardon all their 
iniquities, whereby they have sinned and 
whereby they have transgressed against me. 
And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise, 
and an honor, before all the nations of the 
earth, which shall hear all the good that I 
do unto them : and they shall fear and trem- 
ble for all the goodness and for all the pros- 
perity that I procure unto it." " And they 
shall be my people, and I will be their God : 
and I will give them one heart and one way, 
that they may fear me for ever, for the good 
of them, and of their children after them. 
And I will make an everlasting covenant 



28 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

with them, that I will not turn away from 
them, to do them good ; but / will put my 
fear in their hearts, that they shall not de- 
part from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them 
to do them good, and I will plant them in 
this land assuredly with my whole heart 

AND WITH MY WHOLE SOUL." Jer. XXXH. 

36-42 ; xxxiii. 8, 9 ; Amosix. 14, 15. — Where 
did God ever make such a promise, which 
was not fulfilled ? 

One side, while it wisely aims at the dis- 
tinct preparation of missionaries to meet the 
peculiarities of every sect of the Gentiles, 
whether Indians, or Mahommedans, or Hin- 
doos, or the followers of Confucius, or aught 
else, seems to regard special preparation for 
the Jew as of little importance. The other, 
while it admits that the church, as the " debt- 
or to all men," is required to exercise her wis- 
dom, so as to meet the various cases of the 
Gentiles; yet reminds us that there is after 
all only one Divine distinction, as to mis- 
sionaries of the gospel ; and that is the dis- 
tinction, " The apostle to the circumcision" 
and " The apostle to the uncircumcision" 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 29 

In short, one side assumes that separate 
missions for the Jew, and extraordinary- 
efforts at success with the Jew, are com- 
paratively of little moment ; while the other, 
hastening forward by faith to the dawn of the 
" latter day" glory, cries with Isaiah, " Ye 
that are the Lord's remembrancers, keep 
not silence, and give Him no rest, until He 
establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise 
in the whole earth." Isaiah lxii. 6, 7. 

Now here is a serious difference. Can 
any man fail to perceive that the interpreta- 
tion w T hich favors the one side or the other 
enters into the vitals of missionary opera- 
tions ? How can any friend of missions 
regard the question as frivolous ? 

Some of you point me to the millions who 
are dying here and across the ocean, and 
ask, why not think of them ? Why is our 
attention to be diverted by such a topic ? 
Yes, brethren, I do think of them, and my 
heart bleeds for them. But what if Calvin be 
right in affirming that Christ at his ascension 

" commands the gospel to be preached first 

3 # 



30 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

to the Jews, because to them belongs the 
right of primogeniture" — and further, that 
" under the gospel the Gentiles have their own 
order, indeed, though it is a secondary one 
to that of the Jew ?" # (On Acts i. 8, and iii. 
26, and passim.) 

I turn to that remarkable passage, " For 
the Redeemer shall come to Zion, and unto 
them that turn from transgression in Jacob," 
and the Holy Spirit assures me by the 
mouth of Paul that it is the literal Israel 
which is here designated. Now what if that 
interpretation be true, which assigns the 
very next verses to Israel also, and assumes 
that God is really speaking to the Jewish 
nation when He says, " Arise, shine ; for 
thy light is come, and the glory of the 
Lord is risen upon thee. For behold the 

* See also on Rom. i. 16. . . . The apostle "joins 
the Gentiles in general with the Jews in the participation 
of the gospel ; yet he does not thereby degrade the Jews 
from their proper position and order, inasmuch as they 
were fir^t as regards promise and calling. Hence he pre- 
serves to them their own prerogative, while he constantly 
joins the Gentiles with them as fellow partakers, although 
in an inferior position." 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 31 

darkness shall cover the earth, and gross 
darkness the peoples, but the Lord shall 
arise upon Thee, and his glory shall be seen 
upon Thee ; and the Gentiles shall come to 
Thy light, and kings to the brightness of 
. Thy rising ?" — What, I ask, if it be true, that 
the salvation of the Jews be here, and 
throughout the Scriptures, held up as the 
prelude of signal blessings to the whole 
world ? If God has really placed Israel first, 
it is at the peril of our missionary enter- 
prises that we place Israel last. And what 
shall be said, when we see that while we 
annually raise our hundreds of thousands 
for the Gentiles, the support of two solitary 
missionaries in a neighboring city actually 
exhausts all our sympathy for the seed of 
Abraham? How, then, can any friend of 
missions refuse to investigate this interest- 
ing question? And especially, how can any 
'•'steward of the mysteries of God," who 
aims at the character of a " scribe in- 
structed unto the kingdom of heaven," 
postpone its examination under the evasive 



32 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

plea that more important subjects demand 
attention ? (Note A.) 

I. The second point of difference respects 
the nature and the accompaniments of the 
coming "kingdom of God/' 

We all pray, " Thy kingdom come ; thy 
will be done on earth as it is in heaven/' 
We all look with certain hope for the esta- 
blishment of that kingdom. We are all 
agreed that there is but one such kingdom ; 
when the " earth shall be full of the know- 
ledge of the Lord as the waters cover the 
sea/' But a glance at the church will satis- 
fy any one, that as to the nature and accom- 
paniments of that kingdom we are not all 
agreed. 

What, then, do we mean by the kingdom 
to come ? Do we of the present day stand 
on the same ground with the disciples of 
old ? Is the great object to which the prayer, 
and faith, and hope of the church now reach 
forward, the same with that for which all 
the children of faith, " who died in faith, 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 33 

not having received the promises/' looked, 
and longed, and waited ? What is this 
kingdom for which we pray? 

Some of us reply, that it is only a spiritual 
kingdom. The glory of " the latter day"' when 
the "kingdom, and dominion, and the great- 
ness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, 
shall be given unto the people of the saints of 
the Most High/' is a state which is to be seen 
and enjoyed on this side of the coming of our 
Lord. If it is to last for a thousand years, 
then by so much, at least, is the advent of 
Christ postponed: — and hence, as they reason, 
to look for the appearance of the Son ui 
Man in the clouds of heaven now is little 
short of absurd. 

To confirm this view, almost every Scrip- 
tural expression concerning that kingdom is 
interpreted as figurative. Jesus is & prophet 
in person upon earth, and a priest in person 
upon earth, but never a king. The "suffer- 
ings" are literal, but " the glory" is not. He 
is really "led as a lamb to the slaughter/ 5 
but He is never literally to reign " in Mount 



34 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before His 
ancients gloriously/' Isaiah xxiv. 33. From 
the wonderfully arranged birth in Bethlehem, 
Micah v. 2 ; Matt. ii. 4-6 ; Luke ii., down 
to the riding upon an ass's colt, Matt. xxi. 
4, 5, and thence onward to the closing scene 
of " making his grave with the wicked, and 
with the rich in his death," Is. liii. 9-12 ; 
Mark xv. 28, all is literal, all is real ; but 
after that all is elusive figure. 

" Thy kingdom come \" — a kingdom, in 
which no departed saint has any share ; — in 
which the Jewish people inherit no peculiar 
privileges ; — in which God's dwelling with 
men means only His spiritual presence with 
them just as now — a time of "joy in the 
whole earth," which is yet a time when the 
days of "fasting and mourning" because 
the Bridegroom remains " taken away from 
us," are continued ; — while to look for any- 
thing else, — to expect the return and personal 
presence of Jesus, is esteemed a carnal 
view. 

This is the kingdom for which we pray, 
and labor, and wait ; a kingdom, perhaps 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 35 

near indeed, but which, if it come at all, 
comes far on this side of the advent of our 
Lord, and leaves the church under the 
assurance that the appearance of the " Son 
of Man in the clouds of heaven" need not 
be anticipated for certainly a thousand 
years. 

Such, brethren, is the prayer on one side ; 
and I need not add. that whether right or 
wrong, it is practically the meaning of that 
prayer in this age of the church, with two 
thirds of Christendom, and in our own 
country with even a larger proportion. 

Xow turn to the other view. Here you 
have the kingdom and the second coming 
of Christ strictlv associated together. This 
is insisted upon as indispensable to a right 
understanding of the subject. The coming 
of the King (•'•who has gone to receive for 
Himself a kingdom and to return," Luke 
xix. 11, 12) and the setting up of the king- 
dom, are contemporaneous. To pray for the 
kingdom is really to pray also for the com- 
ing of our Lord. It is contended that the 



36 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

Scriptures present this as the object of the 
church's faith and hope. We are to " wait 
for God's Son from heaven/' 1 Thess. i. 10 ; 
and it is to those who '-look for Him, that 
He shall appear the second time without sin 
unto salvation." Heb. ix. 28. To disso- 
ciate the " coming" from the " kingdom," it 
is said, is to reduce you unavoidably to a 
single alternative. You either destroy the 
predicted kingdom, or you practically expel 
from the church the prominent gospel mo- 
tive, of patient "looking for and hasting 
unto that day of God." (Note B.) 

Again, these men consider that as the 
w T ords respecting Christ's humiliation are 
literal, so they see not why the words 
respecting the glory are not literal. If 
" God manifest in the flesh" must be born in 
Bethlehem, because thus it is written by the 
prophet, " And thou, Bethlehem, art not the 
least among the princes of Judah, for out of 
thee shall He come who is to be the Ruler of 
Israel," Micah v. 2, — why is not God manifest 
in the flesh, even the Lord of hosts, to reign in 
Mount Zion and dwell in Jerusalem, because 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 37 

thus it is written by the same prophet: 
"And I will make her that halted a rem- 
nant, and her that was cast far off a strong 
nation ; and the Lord shall reign over them 
in Mount Zion from henceforth even for 
ever ?" Micah iv. 6-8. As the " man 
Christ Jesus 5 ' was literally "despised and 
rejected of men, a man of sorrows, and 
acquainted with grief," they see not why 
the Lord God shall not literally give unto 
Him the " throne of his father David, 
and his kingdom, to order it and to esta- 
blish it with judgment and justice, from 
henceforth even for ever ?" Is. ix. 7. 

They give hints also thus : The Jew says, 
" We have heard out of the law, that Christ 
abideth for ever, and how sayest thou, the Son 
of Man must be lifted up ? (signifying, of 
course, what death he has died.) Who is 
this Son of Man ?" John xii. 33, 34. But the 
Jew was wrong. He stumbled at a crucified 
Christ by metaphorizing away the sufferings. 
The Gentile answers : " We have heard out 
of the gospel that Christ having suffered hath 
ascended into the heavens, and sitteth on 
4 



38 THE KINGDOM OP GOD. 

the right hand of God." Seeing then that " He 
ever liveth to make intercession/' Rom. viii. 
34 ; Heb. vii. 25, how sayest thou that " the 
Son of Man shall return, having received 
for himself a kingdom, and shall appoint 
unto one servant ten cities and to another 
five ? shall we have this man to reign over 
us?" Luke xix. 11-28. But may not the 
Gentile be wrong, and stumble by metaphor- 
izing away the glory ? 

In fine, these men associate the coming 
of Christ and the kingdom, thus: 

" I charge thee before God, and the Lord 
Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and 
dead, at his appearing and kingdom" 1 Tim. 
v. 21. 

And again — 

" I give thee charge in the sight of God, 
who quickeneth all things, and before Christ 
Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed 
a good confession, that thou keep this com- 
mandment without spot, unrebukable, until 
the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ : 
which in his times He shall show, w r ho is 
the blessed and only Potentate, King of 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 39 

kings, and Lord of lords." 1 Tim. vi. 
13-15. 

And they speak of the time of the king- 
dom and its concomitants thus. " And the 
seventh angel sounded ; and there were 
great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms 
of this world are become the kingdom of our 
Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign 
for ever and ever." What is this ? We 
reply, " The latter-day" glory. " Are we 
all agreed upon this ?" " Yes, all : we all 
preach it." " Very well, read on." " And 
the four-and-twenty elders, which sat before 
God on their seats, fell upon their faces and 
worshipped God, saying, We give thee 
thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, 
and wast, and art to come ; because thou 
hast taken to thee thy great power and hast 
reigned. And the nations were angry and 
thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead 
that they should be judged, and that thou 
shouldest give reward unto thy servants the 
prophets, and to the saints^ and them that 
fear thy name, small and great ; and should- 



40 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

est destroy them that destroy the earth." 
Rev. xi. 15-18. 

Now here, say they, are the coming 
kingdom (as universally admitted), the first 
resurrection with its adjudged rewards, and 
the " gathering out of the kingdom all things 
that offend and them that do iniquity" 
put closely together. 

Such, then, is the difference. Brethren ! 
certainly in an age of missions these things 
may not be thrust into a corner. Con- 
sider a moment. Do we need to be told, 
whatever be our theory of the millennium, 
that it is a clear doctrine of the word of 
God, that the church is to look, and long, 
and wait for the real, visible second coming 
of the Lord, and that we are to " take heed, 
watch and pray ; for we know not when the 
time is ?" Mark xiii. 33. 

See, how the exulting faith and hope of 
the faithful minister postponed his rejoicing 
in his converts to Christ, until the joy of 
that hour, — " For what is our hope, or joy, 
or crown of rejoicing ? Are not even ye in 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 41 

the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at 
his coining?" 1 Thess. ii. 19. See the 
yearnings of an apostle that his hearers 
may "be accounted worthy to escape all 
the evils which shall come to pass, and to 
stand before the Son of man." — " To the end 
that he may establish your hearts unblam- 
able in holiness before God, even our Father, 
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with 
all his saints" 1 Thess. iii. 13. Is it the 
hour of the believer's death, and his peace 
and hope in that hour, upon which the 
apostle's prayer terminates ? Nay, but, " I 
pray God that your whole spirit, and soul, 
and body, be preserved blameless unto the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" 1 Thess. 
v. 23. What is the object to which the 
apostles directed the diligence and hope of 
the people of God ? — " Wherefore gird up 
the loins of your mind, be patient and hope 
to the end for the grace which is to be 
brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus 
Christ" 1 Pet. i. 13. What is it, in a 
word, to which the longing eye of the child of 

God has been directed, at every time, when 

4 # 



42 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

he has commemorated the sacrifice of his 
Lord ? Does he not " show forth the Lord's 
death till he come ?"* 1 Cor. xi. 26. Faith, at 
the same moment, turns to " the sprinkling of 
the blood of Jesus Christ," — and then "blesses 
God who hath begotten us again unto a 
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance in- 
corruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth 
not away, reserved in heaven for those who 
are kept by the power of God through faith 
unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the 
last time ; wherein she greatly rejoices too, 
though under manifold temptations, that her 
trial may be found unto praise, and honour, 
and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ" 
1 Pet. i. 2-7. 

We all consider this point as settled. 
Indeed, the only wonder is that it need be 
repeated. Now, brethren, if it be true, as is 
stated, that any received view of the king- 

* An observant reader of the scriptures cannot fail to re- 
mark how continually this sentiment is seen cropping out in 
unexpected places. How could this be, if the same rich vein 
were not underlying the whole surface of scripture truth? 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 43 

dom is practically driving out of the church 
" that blessed hope, even the glorious appear- 
ing of the great God our Saviour/ 5 who will 
affirm that this is no important matter ? 
(Note C.) 

The scriptures, throughout, inform us that 
when Christ does come, he shall come as a 
" thief in the night." " When they shall say 
peace and safety, then sudden destruction 
overtakes them and they shall not escape." 
1 Thess v. 2, 3. This solemn question, 
then, is proposed to us. Suppose that Christ 
were to come now, where would you find an 
age of the world where both the world and 
the church were lulled into a deeper security 
on this subject than just at this moment ? Is 
a man to be regarded as a troubler in Israel, 
then, if he cry to the secure church, " Be ye, 
therefore, ready, for in such an hour as ye 
think not, the Son of man cometh ?" Matt, 
xxiv. 44. 

But it is replied : — We do admit the doc- 
trine. We expect a kingdom to be set up 
before the advent ; but do we not admit 
also Christ's speedy coming as a thing possi- 



44 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

ble? Let us understand this. Do you 
mean that it is possible that there may be 
no -' filling of the earth with the knowledge 
of the Lord" — that there may be no uni- 
versal kingdom? Is it possible that the 
church may, after all, be mistaken ; and that 
she may have been under a perpetual illusion 
concerning all " that the prophets have 
spoken ?" None of us will allow this. Or, 
perhaps, you mean to take the other ground, 
and associate the advent with the kingdom. 
If so, then we are so far agreed. But we 
earnestly ask, is there any other alternative ? 

Is it true, however, that the present theory 
of the coming kingdom is exerting no bane- 
ful influence ? Let us feel the pulse of the 
church a little to determine. 

Says one, in commenting on the closing 
words of the Apocalypse ; " It ought to 
be noticed that the prayer, ' Come, Lord 
Jesus/ in its full and complete sense, as 
calling upon the Lord to come in the 
' clouds of Heaven/ and wind up sublunary 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 45 

affairs, and enter on His everlasting king- 
dom, is not to be offered, until the prophets 
are fulfilled, the morning of the Resurrection 
about to dawn, and the Son of man visibly to 
reappear."* Now, what is this but to state 
that the church is not now to expect or to 
long for the coming of her Lord ? Brethren ! 
was Peter wrong in urging us to " look for 
and haste unto the coming of the day of 
God ?" 2 Pet. iii. 12. Was James wrong 
when he sustains the suffering saints by the 
assurance, "be patient, brethren, for the 
coming of the Lord draweth nigh ?" James 
v. 8. Was Paul wrong when he gave vent 
to the laborious eagerness of the whole suf- 
fering church of God ? " We groan within 
ourselves, waiting for" — what ? any time of 
relief on this side of the advent ? No — but 



* " Macdonald on the Revelation/' p, 26. This quo- 
tation is made without any intended disrespect to the 
author. His mind only takes color from and exhibits 
the prevailing sentiment. We quote the extract merely 
as one among the many clear indications as to whither the 
church is tending ; and that because, as we conceive, of the 
received notion respecting the kingdom. 



46 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 



waiting for " the adoption, to wit, the resur- 
rection of the body/' Rom. viii. 23. Paul's 
ardent longing overleaps every intervening 
event as unworthy of a thought, and hastens 
with fond hope to the time of the resurrec- 
tion of the dead. 

It is boldly affirmed by some, " This whole 
vision of the coming of the Son of man in 
the clouds of Heaven is simply a figure, a 
type, or a symbol, denoting the conversion 
of the world/' And following this lead, 
even ministers of the word are found, ready 
to profess themselves " satisfied that Christ 
will not appear yet for several thousand 
years." 

But let any man submit the matter to 
his own test. Let him publicly warn the 
church to look for Christ's appearance — let 
him give sanction, as Paul does, to the warn- 
ings, the hopes, the duties of the gospel 
which he utters, by continually urging the 
people of God to look for the coming of 
Christ as an event that may arrive at any 
moment in the present generation, and he 
will soon discover how far such preaching 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 47 

is palatable. He will be fortunate, indeed, 
if he escapes without the imputation of Mil- 
lerism or madness. 

Brethren ! surely these things are not 
trifles. If it be true that the apostles in all 
their epistles represent this coming of Christ 
as the only really glorious object between 
them and the final redemption, surely we 
ought to stand in the same position. Our 
views of the millennium ought to clash with 
no such duty. We pray, " Thy kingdom 
come." If it be true that the beloved disciple, 
as he hears that closing sentence, "Behold, I 
come quickly, and my reward is with me to 
give to every man according as his work 
shall be"- — drops his glowing pen, and with 
an ardor of faith and hope that overleaps 
every intervening obstacle, stretches out his 
trembling, aged hands, and cries, "Even so, 
come, Lord Jesus, come quickly," Rev. xxii. 
7, 20, — most assuredly, the church dare not, 
in her prayer, stop short of the same point. 
She dare not dissociate the advent from the 
long expected kingdom. 

I confess, I see not how any man who 



48 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

prays and labors for the kingdom of Christ 
upon earth, can regard this as a frivolous 
matter, sustained as it is, not by madmen 
nor heretics, but by men whose learning and 
piety and zeal, give them a praise in all the 
churches ; and meeting us, as it does, with 
an array of scripture that the more and more 
astonishes if it does not convince. 

Beloved brethren ! Jesus is at great pains 
to instruct us unto the kingdom of heaven, 
in its various aspects. He says it is like " a 
grain of mustard seed." It is like * leaven" — 
it is like " a net cast into the sea ;" and, lastly, 
it is like unto wheat gathered out from the 
tares which grew until the very harvest, 
"which is at the end of the world, and 
where the reapers are the angels." Matt, 
xiii. 1-52. He spent the forty days after 
his passion in instruction mainly upon this 
topic. Acts i. 3. Is it then an irrelevant 
question for him to ask us in this day of con- 
flict and perplexity, " Have ye understood 
all these things ?" (Note D.) 

III. The third point regards the outward 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 49 

means by which Christ's coming kingdom is 
to be finally established. 

Here, too, is a difference — a difference 
not in minute details, which may be allowed, 
and which exists indeed on both sides, but a 
difference in the grand outline, upon which 
the advocates on either side are as unani- 
mously agreed among themselves as they 
differ from the opposite party. 

Let us keep strictly to the real points at 
issue. The question between us is not 
whether the gospel is to be preached — nor 
whether a preached gospel will not be always 
attended with a measure of success — nor 
whether the church is to prosecute her 
work through all the world, with all the 
prudence, foresight, energy, and patience of 
which she is capable. Nor is it either (we 
are constrained to add, notwithstanding the 
frequent insinuations to the contrary), 
whether men are to be renewed by the ex- 
hibition of signs and miracles without the 
power of the Holy Ghost. We have yet to 
learn the name of the evangelical christian 
teacher, who maintains this doctrine. 
5 



50 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

We return, then, to the question, "How 
is the kingdom to be introduced ?" 

One party insists that the simple preaching 
of the gospel is gradually and completely to 
expel the darkness and secure final and uni- 
versal success. In some day when the 
gospel shall be proclaimed, it will not, as 
now, bring in only a part, but will convert 
every hearer. A new law of success is sud- 
denly to arise, and the church is gradually, 
or towards the last perhaps, more rapidly, to 
be transfused into the millennial state. 

Hence, on this side, the progress of 
science is hailed as, in its way, a pledge of 
success. The gentle rippling of the waters, 
and the fanning airs, prognosticate the 
approach of the " rushing mighty wind." 
The nineteenth century, with its astonish- 
ing improvements and its increased reli- 
gious action, is greeted on every hand as 
the first streaks of the morning. 

Missionary pleas are founded upon this 
persuasion. It is no uncommon announce- 
ment in the ears of the church, — "only exert 
yourself, only give sufficient means, and 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 



the work is done." The simple fact that 
the gospel will thus be everywhere pro- 
claimed, is to be the pledge of consequent 
universal triumph ; not, indeed, as our Lord 
seems to intimate, Matt. xxiv. 14, as the 
harbinger of the "coming of the Son of 
man" to effect the w r ork of salvation, but 
as the precursor of salvation to the ends of 
the earth without his personal presence. 

The proof of this pervading sentiment 
meets us in almost every direction. Let us 
take a single example as an index of the 
church's feeling. Says one of our most 
stirring writers on missions, — " It is plain, not 
only that Christians come far short of doing 
what they can to save the heathen, but if 
they would come up to the measure of their 
duty, they might, under God, rescue the 
dying nations from their impending doom. 
* # # God would not leave a bolt or a 
bar in their way, except what might be 
necessary to test their perseverance. # # 
Let every minister and every Christian do 
his duty, and the radiance of heavenly truth 
would be poured around the dying bed of 



52 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

every pagan; intelligence pour in to us from 
every quarter, not only of individuals, but of 
nations converted to God, and the shout of 
triumph would soon be heard, ' The king- 
doms of this world are become the kingdom 
of our Lord/ "* 

Such, then, on one side, is the very gene- 
ral expectation. 

On the other hand, it is affirmed, that the 
present generation of Christians, like all that 
have preceded it, is simply " a witness-bear- 
ing generation." This is the proper attitude 
of the church in her missionary work. " This 
gospel shall be preached as a witness among 
all nations, and then shall the end come." 

As to the obligation of the church, these 
men rest it on the plain command of Christ, 
" Go into all nations and preach the gos- 
pel." This is enough. The church needs 
no additional stimulus. The assurance of 
entire, or even large success, does not enter 
at all into the obligation. They maintain 
that the church, in this day, is neither to 

* Dibble's " Thoughts on Missions," pp. 90, 91. 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 53 

have nor to expect any other stimulative to 
do her manifest duty, than she has enjoyed 
in any previous century — none other than 
Paul had at Corinth, where God " had much 
people," but where many also perished ; — 
none other, indeed, in her general missionary 
work, than any minister of the gospel has in 
his own parish, where to some " he is a 
savor of life unto life, and to others a savor 
of death unto death." 

Further : — it is maintained on this side, 
that, instead of gradually increasing light, until 
"the latter-day" glory, the Scriptures every- 
where hold up the idea that " darkness shall 
cover the earth and gross darkness the peo- 
ples," Is. lx. 2. " God will hear his own 
elect that cry day and night unto him," 
"how long, O Lord, how long shall the wicked 
triumph?" — and yet "when the Son of Man 
cometh, he shall hardly find faith on the 
earth." Luke xvii. 20-37, and xviii. 1-8 ; 
Ps. xciv. 3. 

It is maintained, that, instead of increasing 
and complete success and comfort, " The 
5* 



54 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, 
and shall be removed like a cottage; and 
the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon 
it ; and it shall fall and not rise again. 
And it shall come to pass, in that day, that 
the Lord shall punish the host of the high 
ones that are on high, and the kings of the 
earth upon the earth ; and they shall be 
gathered together as prisoners are gathered 
in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, 
and after many days they shall be visited." 
Is. xxiv. 20-22. 

And finally, it is maintained, that when 
there shall be "upon the earth distress of 
nations with perplexity, the sea and the 
waves roaring, men's hearts failing them 
for fear, and for looking after those things 
which are coming on the earth (for the 
powers of heaven shall be shaken), then shall 
they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, 
with power and great glory : and when 
these things begin to come to pass, then look 
up, and lift up your heads ; for your redemp- 
tion draweth nigh." Luke xxi. 25-28. "Then 
the moon shall be confounded, and the sun 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. OO 

ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign 
in mount Zion, and in Jerusalem, and before 
his ancients gloriously." Is. xxiv. 23. 

To sum up all ; — it is maintained that the 
church is simply to obey Christ's command 
in prosecuting her missionary work. She is 
to leave results with him ; she is to long for 
his personal interference ; she is not to 
measure her obligation by her prospect of 
success ; and, especially, she is to feed on 
no unwarrantable expectations. 

These then, brethren, are three points of 
serious difference amongst the friends of mis- 
sions. They come to us in an age when the 
church professes to be awake and putting on 
the " whole armor of God/' Her helmet, 
" the hope of salvation," cannot be safely 
substituted by any mistaken counterfeit. 
These questions cannot now at least be held 
as mere theories. The times make them 
eminently practical. If it was safe to ne- 
glect them before, it is not safe now. She 
must aim to " know what is the hope of her 
calling, and what the exceeding riches of 



56 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

God's inheritance in the saints, and what the 
exceeding greatness of His power towards 
us who believe, according to the working of 
His mighty power which He wrought in 
Christ when he raised Him from the dead, 
and set Him at His own right hand in 
heavenly places." Eph. i. 18-20. 

Let me then, in the next place, advert to 
a few of the objections urged against weigh- 
ing these questions : 

1. This subject is often dismissed with the 
reply, that these things are after all unimpor- 
tant. 

What! not important to know whether 
Leighton was right in declaring, " They for- 
get a main part of the church's glory who 
pray not daily for the conversion of the 
Jews." And if first in prayer why not first 
in labor ? Not important to know exactly 
what we ought to mean when we cry, " For 
Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and for 
Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the 
righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, 
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 57 

burneth : and the Gentiles shall see thy 
light, and all kings thy glory. Thou shalt 
also be a crown of glory in the hand of the 
Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of thy 
God. Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken ; 
neither shall thy land any more be termed 
desolate : but thou shalt be called Hephzibah 
and thy land Beulah ; for the Lord delighteth 
in thee, and thy land shall be married V* Is. 
lxii. 1-4. 

Not important ! — Brethren ! Peter says to 
the Jews : " The heavens must receive 
Jesus until the times of the restitution of all 
things spoken by the mouth of all the holy 
prophets since the world began/' Acts iii. 
19-21. And the Holy Ghost, by the mouth 
of Zecharias, the father of John the Baptist, 
declares what the burden of this theme of all 
the holy prophets is. " Blessed be the Lord 
God of Israel ; for he hath visited and re- 
deemed His people, and hath raised up an 
horn of salvation for us in the house of his 
servant David : as He spoke by the mouth 
of His holy prophets which have been since 
the world began ; that we should be saved 



58 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

from our enemies, and from the hand of all 
that hate us ; to perform the mercy promised 
to our fathers, and to remember His holy 
covenant ; the oath which he swore to our 
father Abraham, that he w r ould grant unto 
us, that we being delivered out of the hands of 
our enemies, might serve Him without fear 
in holiness and righteousness before Him all 
the days of our life." Luke i. 68-75. Is it 
not important to understand what all the 
prophets have agreed in speaking, — and to 
know, whether this restitution of all things, 
when " He that sitteth upon the throne saith, 
behold I make all things new," Rev. xxi. 
5, be indeed " the regeneration when the Son 
of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, 
and when the twelve also shall sit upon 
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of 
Israel 1" Matth. xix. 28. 

Not important ! Listen to this : 
"And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord 
God; Behold, I will take the children of 
Israel from among the heathen, whither they 
be gone, and will gather them on every 
side, and bring them into their own land : 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 59 

And I will make them one nation in the 
land upon the mountains of Israel ; and one 
king shall be king to them all : and the) 
shall be no more two nations, neither shall 
they be divided into two kingdoms any 
more at all : Neither shall they defile them- 
selves any more with their idols, nor with 
their detestable things, nor with any of their 
transgressions ; but I will save them out 
of all their dwelling-places, wherein they 
have sinned, and will cleanse them : so shall 
they be my people, and I will be their God. 
And David my servant shall be king over 
them ; and they all shall have one shep- 
herd: they shall also walk in my judgments, 
and observe my statutes, and do them. 
And they shall dwell in the land that I 
have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein 
your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell 
therein, even they, and their children, and 
their children's children for ever : and my 
servant David shall be their prince for ever. 
Moreover, I will make a covenant of peace 
with them ; it shall be an everlasting cove- 
nant with them : and I will place them, and 



60 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 



multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in 
the midst of them for evermore. My taber- 
nacle also shall be with them : yea, I will be 
their God, and they shall be my people. 
And the nations shall know that I the Lord 
do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall 
be in the midst of them for evermore" Ez. 
xxxvii. 21-28. 

Ought we not to be able to explain this 
wonderful and explicit promise ? 

These things not important ! And yet 
Peter sums up the results of the great com- 
mission, and the whole success of the gospel 
among the nations, before Christ's coming, 
in these few words : " to take out of the 
Gentiles a people for His name." Acts xv. 
14. James adds, from the prophets, that 
'•'After this God would return and build 
again the tabernacle of David which was 
broken down, and build again the ruins 
thereof and set it up : that the residue of 
men should seek the Lord, even all the Gen- 
tiles upon whom God's name is called," Acts 
xv. 16, 17. Paul confirms this by calling 
the same a pleroma or fulness of the Gen- 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 61 

tiles, and assures us, that when this is ful- 
filled, the Jew is to be received again, and 
become as "life from the dead," Rom. xi. 15. 
Brethren ! is it unimportant to know whe- 
ther this will, indeed, be the extent of our 
present success, and whether, therefore, we 
are plying the church with unwarrantable 
motives on this point or not ? Oh ! let us 
not forget that solemn warning, "Whoso- 
ever shall break one of these least command- 
ments, and teach men so, he shall be called the 
least in the kingdom of heaven/' Matth. v. 19. 

We aim to be "scribes well instructed 
unto the kingdom of heaven." Now the 
church sitteth in her chariot, and we run to 
her and hear her reading the prophet Zecha- 
riah. We ask, Understandest thou what 
thou readest ? and she replies : — How can I, 
except some one should guide me ? The 
place of the Scripture which she reads is 
this : — " Behold the man whose name is the 
Branch, and he shall build the temple of the 
Lord, even he shall build the temple of the 
Lord, and he shall bear the glory, and shall 
6 



62 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

sit and rule upon his throne, and he shall be 
a priest upon his throne, and the counsel of 
peace shall be between them both." Zech. 
vi. 12, 13 And the church answers, and 
says, "I pray you, of whom speaketh the 
prophet this, of himself or of some other 
man?" Brethren! is it unimportant to know 
whether and how " I shall begin at the same 
Scripture and preach unto her Jesus," as 
King as well as Priest upon His throne ? 

If these things are unimportant, what, I be- 
seech you, is important ? 

2. Shall we relieve our consciences by 
the reply that the subject is too dark ? 

Grant it dark ; but remember the promise ; 
- — at the time of the end, " many shall seek 
and shall find knowledge." Grant it dark ; 
yet even respecting dark prophecies, can we 
blot out that declaration of God, " Blessed 
is he that readeth and they that hear this 
prophecy, for the time is at hand ?" Rev. i. 3. 

The prophecy of Israel's return from Ba- 
bylon was a dark prophecy. But as the time 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 63 

drew near, Daniel turned to the Scriptures, 
and "understood by books the number of the 
years whereof the word of the Lord came to 
Jeremiah the prophet concerning the desola- 
tions of Jerusalem," Dan. ix. 2. The pro- 
phecy respecting the first coming of Christ 
was a dark prophecy. But that did not 
hinder many from " running to and fro." 
" Knowledge had increased," — and they 
" stood waiting for the consolation of Israel." 
Oh, brethren ! is it only concerning His glo- 
rious coming " the second time without sin 
unto salvation," that all is so dark, that we 
hardly know whether we are to be "pa- 
tiently waiting," under the assurance that 
" yet a little while, and he that shall come 
will come, and will not tarry ?" Heb. x. 37. 

No, brethren ! For what are we placed 
here, but to assure the church in an unbe- 
lieving age that " we have not followed cun- 
ningly devised fables when we made known 
unto her the power and coming of our 
Lord Jesus Christ ?" — what but to remind 
her that one who did not " taste of death 
until he saw the kingdom of God come 



64 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

with power," testifies that he was an " eye- 
witness of his majesty, when he was with 
him in the holy mount ?"— and to assure her 
that we have also a more sure word of pro- 
phecy, to the same end, unto which she will 
do well to take heed, as unto a light that 
shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, 
and the day-star arise in our hearts ?" 2 Pet. 
i. 16-19. 

3. Shall we reply with many that these 
views are not practical, or that they are 
even injurious ? 

Not practical ! Why, then, is so large a 
portion of God's word occupied with the 
direct discussion of them ? Not practical ! 
when every prayer for the kingdom has a 
different aspect, as you view the subject in 
one way or the other ! 

These views injurious ! Come forward, 
then, thou man of God, and tell us why 
thou didst so solemnly warn the church 
that the " day of the Lord would come 
as a thief in the night/' and then add, 
"seeing that all these things shall be dis- 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 65 

solved, what manner of persons ought ye 
to be in all holy conversation and godli- 
ness!" Tell us — why didst thou with pierc- 
ing eye stand looking longingly for " the 
new heaven and new earth, wherein dwell- 
eth righteousness ?" and then when the holy 
vision was clear to faith, why didst thou 
cry, '*' Wherefore, beloved, seeing ye look 
for such things, be diligent, that ye may be 
found of Him in peace, without spot and 
blameless V 2 Pet. iii. 10-14. 

Ah! brethren, surely the apostles felt, that 
if the members of a church would <; come 
behind in no gift/' they must stand "waiting 
for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
who will also confirm them unto the end, 
that they may be blameless in the day of 
our Lord Jesus Christ." 1 Cor. i. 7, 8. 

4. Shall we defend our neglect with the 
reply, that the proposed views have been so 
often coupled w 7 ith fanatical extravagance ? 
Shall we be frightened by the stigmatizing 
epithets of Chiliasts, and Fifth Monarchy 
Men, and Millerites ? 
6* 



66 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

But what important doctrine of God's 
word has not Satan caused to be carica- 
tured, — and that, too, by a very slight ad- 
dition ? A little leaven was put in. It 
leavened the whole lump, and made many 
reject the mass with loathing. Has He not 
tried this successfully with the doctrines of 
justification by faith, of baptism, of repent- 
ance towards God ? Every important doc- 
trine of Scripture is a complete arch, and 
upon this arch the church is called to build 
her hopes. Now do we not know that when 
the light of Scripture is so clear and strong, 
that the adversary cannot sweep away the 
whole structure at a blow, his next step is 
to tempt the rash hand of some fanatic to 
wrest away a single stone, and the whole 
mass falls into confusion and ridicule ? I 
pray you, let us not be scared away from in- 
vestigation by this ancient wile of the devil. 

There is one lesson, which, it is thought, 
the experience of the church might have 
taught us. It is this : Truth is vindicated 
from her discoloring and distortions, not by 
concealing her image, but by faithfully por- 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 67 

traying her at full length. We discredit the 
caricature, only by producing the true like- 
ness from the gallery of Scripture. Instead, 
then, of being alarmed into concealment, let 
the attempts of errorists rather urge us to 
preach the second coming of our Lord in its 
fulness, and our "tongues become as the 
pen of a ready writer, when we speak of the 
things which have been made touching the 
King." (Note E.) 

Let us turn now to another view of the 
subject. Who are the men that urge these 
questions upon us ? 

Fathers and brethren ! suffer me to ap- 
peal to you ; I speak freely because I speak 
to you. Let me express my growing con- 
viction that the church of Christ, in her 
missionary work, feels a pressing need of 
inquiring at this time and upon this subject. 
We are brought to a crisis. We must go for- 
ward or retreat. Every man who will take 
the pains to examine, feels the immense pres- 
sure of this difficulty, and this pressure is 
avoided only by inactivity. Against the 



68 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

generally adopted theory on the one side, 
there is setting in a strong tide of influence 
upon the other. 

Look at the state of the case. Our sister 
church of Scotland has taken decided 
ground on one at least of these points. She 
has done more. Her general assembly has 
"blessed God that His church in all its 
various branches has had her attention 
turned more earnestly to the predicted 
events of the latter times, and the circum- 
stances connected with that second coming 
of their great head and Lord, which, what- 
ever obscurity may hang over its details, 
should ever have been, and now more and 
more must ever be, in its grand outlines, the 

POLE-STAR OF HER HOPE." 

Further : — some of her best and most spirit- 
ual ministers are zealous propagators of 
them all. The most evangelical of the 
English ministry are leavened with the same 
doctrine. To say nothing of the glorious 
host that might be summoned from all past 
time, I see in these ranks, in our own 
day, such men as Duff, and McCheyne, and 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 69 

the Bonars, and Brooks, and Bickersteth, 
and Candlish, with many others— and last, 
though not least, the great and good Chal- 
mers. In his last days, and in his secret re- 
tirement, he suddenly catches the glorious 
dawn at least of the same truth, and his 
eye brightens with unwonted lustre, just be- 
fore he sinks to rest. Take one passage 
among many : " This seeing eye to eye* 
makes for the personal reign of Him whose 
feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives. 
God's restoration of the Jews will be an 
event to arouse the wonder of the whole 
earth ; and it will be a leisurely, well-con- 
certed movement under the guidance of One 
far more illustrious than the Ezras, or the 
Nehemiahs, or the Zerubbabels of the Old 
Testament — One, at whose appearance all the 
kings of the world will fall prostrate, and at 
length acknowledge his rightful title as 
' King of Kings and Lord of Lords/ " 

These then are the men who demand our 
attention. Now these men come to me 

* " Daily Scriptural Readings" — on Isaiah lii. 7. 



70 THE KINGDOM OF GOD, 

with the bible in their hands. They invite 
investigation. They appeal continually to 
the word of God. Their arguments are re- 
markably calm, cautious, modest — in a 
word, just such as become a lover of the 
truth. They seem, at least, to kindle a light 
upon almost every page of the scriptures, to 
illustrate and enforce their views. Under 
their potent touch, sentences once unmean- 
ing become resplendent with joy and com- 
fort. Scripture expressions that have lain 
in the mind in an almost deathlike inanity, 
suddenly start up into life, and beauty, and 
cheerfulness. What was once a garden in- 
deed, but a garden where the living trees 
were comparatively few and scattered, while 
all the rest was one chiselled landscape of 
joyless- stone, — smiles into the well-watered 
garden of the Lord ; every leaf waving in 
the breath of the Spirit, and every flower 
exhaling the goodly smell of Lebanon. Nor 
must I forbear to add, that, smile as we may 
at their conclusions, — once grapple with their 
arguments, and unless we are prepared with 
some strong rod wherewith to break the 



THE KINGDOM OP GOD. 71 

chain of their reasonings, it is not easy " to 
resist the spirit and wisdom with which they 
speak/'' 

Fathers and brethren ! I ask you now 
candidly what shall I reply to these men ? 

Will it do to answer them by a sneer? 
Stop a moment. Let us hear the words of 
God ! — " And in this mountain shall the 
Lord of hosts make unto all people a 
feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the 
lees ; of fat things full of marrow, of wines 
on the lees well refined. And he will destroy 
in this mountain the face of the covering 
cast over all people, and the veil that is spread 
over all nations* He will swallow up death 
in victory; and the Lord God will wipe 
away tears from off all faces ; and the 
rebuke of his people shall be taken away 
from off all the earth : for the Lord hath 
spoken it. And it shall be said in that day, 
Lo, this is our God ; we have waited for 
Him, we will be glad and rejoice in his 
salvation, " Is. xxv. 6-9. 

Now here, what is by all admitted to be 



72 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

a description of the coming kingdom, are 
associated — the restoration of the Jews, and 
their land made a blessing to all nations — 
their rejoicing in the Messiah after long and 
"patient waiting" — and complete deliver- 
ance to all from every sorrow. 

Let us now summon from the tomb an 
inspired witness to fix the point of time for 
this kingdom. 

Paul! tell us; when shall these things 
be? You may hear his voice coming up 
from the depths of a martyred grave. " So 
when this corruptible shall have put on in- 
corruption, and this mortal shall have put on 
immortality, then shall be brought to pass 
the saying that is written, ' Death is swal- 
lowed up in victory V " 1 Cor. xv. 54. 

Thou faithful servant of God! Let 
" thy flesh then rest," as did thy Lord's, " in 
hope," — for as thou hast "known the fellowship 
of His sufferings," so shalt thou know " the 
power of His resurrection," and " attain unto 
the resurrection of the dead." " Blessed 
and holy is He that hath part in the first 
resurrection!" Thou hast no crown of 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 73 

glory now — but " there is laid up for thee 
a crown of glory which the Lord, the 
righteous Judge, shall give thee in that day : 
and not to thee only, but also to all them 
that love His appearing." Return then 
unto thy sleep in Jesus ! — and " when 
the chief Shepherd shall appear, thou 
shalt receive that crown of glory which 
fadeth not away" — for "thou hast suffered, 
and thou shalt also reign with Him" — and 
as "thou hast nobly overcome, thou shalt 
sit down with thy Lord upon His throne, 
even as He also overcame and is now 
seated with His Father upon His throne." 

Brethren! you see whither we are brought, 
— not by the " words which man's wisdom 
teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth 
— comparing things uttered by the Spirit with 
things uttered by the Spirit." What can a 
sneer effect in such a case as this ? 

Shall I administer to their reasonings, the 
usually recommended panacea, that such 
views betoken a carnal spirit ? 

But if it be not carnal to desire the 
7 



74 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

presence of the Bridegroom in glory in some 
extra-mundane locality, why is it carnal to 
desire His presence in glory upon this 
renewed earth ? Mere locality, in this mat- 
ter, is nothing. There is every element of 
spirituality in the latter case that can be 
really conceived in the former. 

But come to facts. Leave the living out 
of the question. Hear such men as Ruther- 
ford, and Welsh, and Alleine, longing for 
the visible appearing of the Son of Man. 
Were they carnal ? (Note F.) Think of 
"the most of the chief divines in the 
Westminster Assembly, not only Indepen- 
dents, but others, such as Twisse, Marshall* 
Palmer, and many more who are express 
Chiliasts." Were these men carnal ? 

Yonder are four martyrs in prison. They 
are— *" these famous men : Mr. Cranmer, 
archbishop of Canterbury; Mr. Ridley, 
bishop of London ; that holy man Mr. Brad- 
ford ; and I, old Hugh Latimer ; who were im- 
prisoned in the Tower of London for Christ's 
Gospel preaching; but where, to our great joy 
and comfort, we did together read over the 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 75 

New Testament with great deliberation and 
painful study." One of them is writing a 
letter. It is "holy Mr. Bradford." He is 
relating to a friend, his own and " the cogi- 
tation of one who was my father in the 
Lord,"* respecting " the earnest expectation 
of the creature." Rom. viii. 19-23. He does it, 
moreover — " because this morning I had some 
knowledge more than I had before, that my 
life stood in great danger, and that even this 
week;" and hence " I thought good, my right 
dearly beloved in the Lord, to go about 
something which might be on my behalf a 
swan's song,f and towards you, both a 
monument of my love, and also a help, or at 
least an occasion for you to profit in that 
which I bear you record you most desire — 
I mean everlasting life, and the state thereof J' 
Now step to his side and look over his 
shoulder as he writes. — " I therefore take the 

* Martin Bucer. 

t " That is, whieh might be a special comfort to him, 
being then ready to be burned, as the swan's song is said 
to be sweetest a little before his death ." — Letters of the 
Martyrs. 



76 THE KINGDOM OP GOD* 

apostle to mean by ' every creature 5 simply, 
even the whole shape and creatures in the 
world/' ####### an^ " that as every 
thing and all things were made for man, so 
by the man Christ all and every thing, both 
earthly and heavenly, shall be restored." 
" These things will I think upon, these things 
will I pause upon ; herein will I, as it were, 
drown myself; being careless of this point, 
I mean as to what parts of the world the 
Lord Christ will restore unto me, or how He 
will do it, or what state or condition He will 
give it. It is enough, and enough for me, 
that I and all the world like me shall be 
much more happy than I ever can by any 
means conceive." # # " This renovation 
of all things the prophets seem to promise 
when they promise new heavens and a new 
earth." # f # " Therefore, methinks it 
is the duty of a godly mind to acknowledge, 
and thereof to glory in the Lord, that in our 
resurrection all things shall be repaired for 
eternity, as from our sin they were made 
subject to corruption. " # 

* Bradford's Letters (83). Read the whole letter, and 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 77 

Now, here were holy men who had no 
idea of any glorious kingdom before the 
second advent of our Lord, and were " they 
thereby carnal ?" 

No, brethren, I have tried this panacea, 
and I here unhesitatingly pronounce it a 
nostrum. (Note G.) 

Shall I use against them what has been 
well termed " that mighty solvent/' by which 
all the special promises to Israel are lique- 
fied into confused and uncertain promises to 
the Church in general ? Shall I make Jeru- 
salem mean the Church, and Zion mean the 
Church, and Judah mean the Church, and 
Israel mean the Church, at my own will ? 

Well, I have tried this too. But the difficulty 
is that there are hard stones in this polished 
temple of God which the powers of this "mighty 

note his quotation from Augustine. See also his fellow- 
sufferer, Latimer's sermon on " The Day of Judgment," 
and his " Third Sermon on the Lord's Prayer." It would 
be hard to discover in these old witnesses for the truth, the 
expectation of a day of peace before Christ's advent, such 
as the Church now looks for. 
7# 



78 THE KINGDOM OF GOB. 

solvent" will not reach. Let any man cast 
in, for example, the sixty-first and following 
chapters of Isaiah, or the thirty-seventh and 
closing chapters of Ezekiel, and what will 
he have ? A residuum, I grant you ; a shape- 
less mass — " rudis, indigestaque moles," — 
but not, I think, the symmetrical city of 
God, whose name is> " The Lord is there/' 
(Note H.) 

Can I put these men down by the too 
common, empty cry, that these views endan- 
ger the progress of missions ? 

But these men point to the fact that this 
view of the " coming and kingdom" is the 
very life of missions ; since there is scarcely 
a duty enjoined in the whole gospel which is 
not enforced by the consideration of Christ's 
second coming. I say it unhesitatingly; 
This is emphatically the gospel motive, to 
both saint and sinner, and in every stage of 
their several conditions. Take a few ex- 
amples : — 

Repentance. — "Repent ye, for the king- 
dom of Heaven is at hand." Mark i. 15, 



THE KINGDOM OP GOD. 79 

" The Lord cometh with ten thousand of 
his saints to execute judgment upon all; and 
to convince all that are ungodly among them 
of all their ungodly deeds." Jude 14, 15. 

Sobriety and Hope. — " Wherefore gird 
up the loins of your minds, be sober and 
hope to the end, for the grace that is to be 
wrought unto you at the revelation of Jesus 
Christ." 1 Pet. i. 13. 

Courage. — " Fear not, little flock, for it is 
your Father's good pleasure to give you the 
kingdom" Luke xii. 32. 

Patience. — "Be ye also patient; stablish 
your hearts, for the coming of the Lord 
draweth nigh." James v. 7, 8. 

Diligence. — " We look for a new heaven 
and a new earth ; let us therefore be diligent, 
that we be found of Him in peace" 2 Pet. 
iii. 14. 

Meekness.— " Blessed are the meek, for 
they shall inherit the earth." Matt. v. 5. 

Comfort for the departed. — What was 
this comfort? Did Paul comfort the be- 
reaved by the joyful fact that their sleeping 
friends were now in glory ? Nay : but — " I 



80 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

would not have you ignorant, brethren, con- 
cerning those which are asleep, that ye 
sorrow not as those which have no hope ; for 
if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, 
even so them also which sleep in Jesus will 
God bring with him. For this we say unto 
you, by the word of the Lord, that we which 
are alive and remain unto the coming of the 
Lord, shall not go before them which are 
asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend 
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of 
an archangel and the trump of God : and 
the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we 
which are alive and remain shall be caught 
up together with them in the clouds, to meet 
the Lord in the air : and so shall we ever be 
with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one 
another with these words." 1 Thess. iv. 
13-18. 

Such are a few examples. And these are 
not the " bright particular stars" in the 
galaxy. There are others, larger, and that 
shine with a more brilliant splendor. 

No, brethren, this reply will not do. Why, 
even our missionaries themselves, to be emi- 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 81 

nently successful with the heathen, must urge 
upon them the same arguments which made 
Paul so successful with the heathen of Thes- 
salonica,— " to turn from dumb idols, and serve 
the living and true God : and to wait for His 
Son from Heaven, whom he raised from the 
dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from 
the wrath to come." 1 Thess. i. 9, 10. 

Shall I reply by affirming that "our 
business is to preach Christ Jesus and Him 
crucified," and that " we may think so much 
of Christ's second coming as to forget the 
object of the first ?" 

True, this is plausible. It sounds well. In 
short, it might possibly relieve somewhat our 
difficulty, were it not for a single considera- 
tion, which I must present. 

Two hundred years ago we received from 
the Westminster Assembly of Divines, that 
noble summary of doctrine, our " Confession 
of Faith." It is a precious legacy. But it is 
long, and not easily carried verbatim in the 
memory. Now their success has suggested 
this question — Could not some short compend 



82 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

be found which should embrace all the pro- 
minent doctrines of the gospel, be easily 
carried in the memory, and which, if a man 
were surrounded, as was Titus, with the 
various forms of error, would meet and refute 
these errors by our simply carrying out its 
principles ? Where shall we find such a com- 
pendium ? I believe, brethren, that it will 
be in vain to look to human aid in such a 
task. We must turn to Him who is the 
author of the gospel, and who sees it at a 
glance in all its length and breadth. Hear, 
then, brethren, from the Holy Ghost, this 
summary of the gospel. It is contained in 
four short articles. 

" For the grace of God which bringeth 
salvation hath appeared unto all men, teach- 
ing us" — 

Article first. — Of repentance. " To deny 
ungodly and worldly lusts"— 

Article second. — Of lioly living. " To 
live soberly, righteously, godly, in this present 
worlds- 
Article third. — Of the patience of faith 
and hope. "Looking for that blessed hope, 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 83 

even the glorious appearing of the great 
God, our Saviour, Jesus Christ" — 

Article fourth, — Of the atonement, and its 
results. " Who gave Himself for us, that He 
might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify 
unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of 
good works." Titus ii. 12-15. 

Brethren! you would not blot out, nor 
would you hide in your preaching the first, 
or the second, or the fourth ; why then allow 
any theory to eclipse the third ? Especially, 
shall we dare do this when the Holy Spirit 
immediately adds,with such solemn emphasis 
— " These things speak" — (whatever else you 
omit, or do not enlarge upon) " these things 
speak, and exhort and rebuke with all author- 
ity. Let no man despise thee." (Note I.) 

Shall I meet them by throwing out one or 
two texts, wrested from their connexion, and 
then fold my arms in apathy on the whole 
subject ? — or shall I propose one or two subtle 
difficulties as to details, and then turn away 
as if the matter were settled ? 

Brethren, this remedy can be tested only 



84 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

by experience. Let me, however, testify 
that, when we have ceased objecting, and 
have actually gone in with these men into 
the temple of Scripture, and patiently listened 
to them, "persuading and testifying the 
things of the kingdom of God, both out of 
Moses and all the prophets, from morning un- 
til evening,"— it is not one or two displaced 
texts, nor one or two subtle objections that 
will relieve us. In such a case I will not say 
simply that you will be convinced. If your 
experience should tally with mine you will 
be overwhelmed with the multitude and apt- 
ness of their proofs from the word of God. 

Beloved brethren ! For one, I feel that 
our present policy will not answer. If these 
brethren are wrong, they must be met. 
They must be met at length. They must 
be met, not by occasional brief, unsa- 
tisfactory suggestions, but by fairly entering 
the lists. They must be met in a similar spi- 
rit to their own. — " searching the Scriptures 
daily whether these things are so/' They 
must be met, in fine, with Scripture for 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 85 

Scripture. Say, if you please, with some, 
that these are pernicious delusions of the 
devil. At least they seem to have God's word 
to rest upon. Even in such a case, then, 
ignorant contempt or haughty neglect will 
not serve. If we would vanquish in this 
contest we must copy our Master, and if the 
adversary is able to quote Scripture so 
adroitly, and argue " it is written/' we must 
have the grace to reply " it is written 



Reverend Fathers of this Synod ! Suf- 
fer a son to appeal to you. God has honored 
you with the respect of all his churches. 
Your piety, your learning, your steadfastness 
in the truth, your clear vindications of the 
doctrines of the gospel, confirm our regard. 
In the name of the Church of Christ I ask 
your guidance. Bear with me if I use this 
occasion to give vent to the long cherished 
desire of a perplexed heart that you should 
sedulously take the lead in this matter. 

I ask you here, affectionately, What course 
shall we pursue ? The call is upon us, and 
8 - 



86 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

the difficulty is pressing. When have we as a 
church taken decided ground on this subject ? 
These questions are not only not irrele- 
vant, but on the subject of missions are they 
not emphatically the questions at the present 
time ? If Paul magnified his office as mis- 
sionary to the Gentiles by pleading — not for 
the Gentile, but — for the Jew, why may not 
we give dignity to our missions in the same 
w T ay ? If men were " fools, and slow of 
heart to believe all that the prophets have 
spoken, that Christ was first to suffer' — is 
there no danger that men now should be 
" fools, and slow of heart to believe all that 
the prophets have spoken concerning the 
glory" into which he is to enter ? If the 
former was metaphorized away by the Jew, 
why may not the latter be metaphorized 
away by Ihe Gentile ? Take out the doctrines, 
" repentance towards God, and faith towards 
our Lord Jesus Christ," — which are confess- 
edly the most important, because they are 
the life of the soul — and what doctrines, after 
these, lay a higher claim to the fairest and 
fullest discussion than those which affect the 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 87 

publication of the gospel, and the circum- 
stances of Christ's coming kingdom? Tell 
me, I beseech you, how I may expect any 
such kingdom, before the advent of our 
Lord, and yet look and wish for that advent 
continually? If that kingdom is not to 
appear until his advent, tell me further, how 
is it that the Scriptures so continually asso- 
ciate that kingdom with this earth, if it is to 
be withdrawn to some other point in the 
universe ? 

Reverend Fathers, it is with no ordinary 
emotions that I plead with you to teach us 
not only to pray, but to pray with under- 
standing, " Thy kingdom come : Thy will 
be done on earth as it is in heaven." 

Beloved Brethren of the Synod! I ap- 
peal to you. Has not this matter been left 
long enough in abeyance ? Will not the time 
past suffice for associating these views with 
the dreams of folly, when we cannot meet the 
formidable array of Scripture testimony 
brought against us ? Is it not time for us to 
know whether, in any, and in what point, 



00 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

our prevailing theory of missions at this day 
is defective ? Shall this subject always be 
repelled as frivolous ? Shall we never meet 
it as we would meet any other alleged 
doctrine of Scripture ? Surely, on the theme 
which oftenest occupied the pen of Moses, 
and the harp of David and of all the prophets 
since the world began, — when the church 
beseeches us, " Read me this, I pray you" — 
we are not at liberty to reply " I cannot, for 

1 am not learned." 

Let me affectionately ask you, why 
should this particular subject be pro- 
scribed ? The church has fought through 
and maintained, inch by inch, from the 
word of God, the doctrine of the propheti- 
cal office of the Lord, and she has been 
strengthened ever since by the conflict. She 
has dragged up from oblivion, and main- 
tained hand to hand, in the sixteenth century, 
the priesthood of her crucified and interced- 
ing Saviour ; and every nerve and muscle 
has been strung with new vigor ever since. 
Why, then, is the kingly office of her Head, 
— that significant title, " King of Kings, and 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 89 

Lord of Lords," — to be esteemed of so little 
value that she can be at almost no pains to 
understand what the word of God realty 
means by it ? 

Beloved brethren ! I ask for no rash deci- 
sions. But I do ask, I do entreat, I do suppli- 
cate that these things be no longer treated 
with contempt ; but that whatever of critical 
talent God has given to his church should be 
brought to guide the church in her present 
path. When I rise up before the flock 
which Christ has given me to feed, am I — oh ! 
am I, by any theory, cherishing in them 
unfounded expectations ? Am I shutting out 
from their eyes and their hearts that 
" blessed hope, the glorious appearing of their 
Saviour?" Am I practically urging them 
to repose — instead of "watchingfor their Lord, 
whether he come at even, or at midnight, 
or at the cockcrowing, or in the morning, 
lest, coming suddenly, he find them sleeping ?" 
Am I beguiling them into the expectation of 
increasing light and prosperity and religion 
through the earth — instead of warning them 
to "watch, therefore, and pray always, that 
8* 



90 THE KINGDOM OP GOD. 

they may be accounted worthy to escape all 
those things which shall come to pass, and to 
stand before the Son of man ?" 

These, brethren, are serious questions to 
the men who are "appointed to give meat 
to His household in due season." " Blessed 
are we if our Lord when he cometh shall 
find us so doing." Surely, then, you will 
esteem it no needless plea if I put up the 
imploring prayer, for you and for me, that it 
may be " given unto us to know the mystery 
of the kingdom of God." Mark iv. 11. 

Brethren! "The Lord direct our hearts 
into the love of God, and the patient waiting 
for Christ." — For " Behold he cometh with 
clouds, and every eye shall see him ; and 
they also that pierced him, and all kindreds 
of the earth shall wail because of him." — 
But " When ye see the Son of man coming 
in the clouds of Heaven, then look up and 
lift up your heads, for your redemption 
draweth nigh." — For, " Behold I saw in the 
night visions, and one like the Son of man 
came with the clouds of Heaven, and came to 



THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 91 

the Ancient of days, and they brought him 
near before him : and there was given him 
dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all 
people, nations, and languages should serve 
him : his dominion is an everlasting do- 
minion, which shall not pass away, and his 
kingdom, that which shall not be destroyed" 
— " and the kingdom and dominion, and the 
greatness of the kingdom under the whole 
heaven, shall be given to the people of the 
saints of the Most High, whose kingdom is 
an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions 
shall serve and obey him." — " In that day, 
saith the Lord, will I assemble her that 
halteth, and I will gather her that is driven 
out, and her that I have afflicted, and I will 
make her that halted a remnant, and her 
that was cast far off a strong nation : and 
the Lord shall reign over them in Mount 
Zion from henceforth, even for ever" — " And 
I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, 
Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, 
and he will dwell with them, and they shall 
be his people, and he shall be their God. 
And God shall wipe away all tears from 



92 THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 

their eyes ; and there shall be no more 
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither 
shall there be any more pain : for the former 
things are passed away. And he that sat 
upon the throne said, Behold, I make all 
things new. And he said unto me, Write : 
for these words are true and faithful !" 

Lord Jesus ! Oh ! hasten thy glorious 
coming ! Take away the light of this 
present world, that the whole earth may 

BE LIGHTENED WITH THY GLORY ! Let THE 

pillar of the cloud, where thou art invi- 
sible, redden into the pillar of fire by 
the lightnings of thy revealed presence ; 
that thy whole church may rest glorious 
in the light of thy countenance ! " there 
we shall need no candle, neither light of 
the sun ; for the lord god shall give us 
light, even the lamb shall be the light 
thereof!" "Even so, come, Lord Jesus, 
come giuickly!" Amen. 



NOTES. 



NOTES. 



There are a few ready objections against 
the views set forth in the preceding dis- 
course, which are usually proposed at the 
outset as a sufficient reason for discarding 
any further examination of the subject. But 
we cannot perceive that the matter is to be 
disposed of so easily. We have endeavored 
to consider these objections honestly. The 
result is, that to our mind these objections 
are either founded on a misconception of 
millenarian views ; — or they assume a mean- 
ing for certain scripture terms, w r hich the 
Scriptures themselves do not warrant; — or 
upon examination, they are found to be be- 
side the point. The object of the following 
notes is to show that this remark is true. 

Note A, p. 32. 
It is often insinuated as a decisive objec- 



yb NOTES. 

tion that " there is all the difference between 
the views here presented and the truth, that 
there is between Judaism and Christianity." 
It is asked with some asperity — " Shall we go 
back to Judaism ?" 

This seems like an attempt to answer the 
argument by a slur. The apostles had so 
much trouble with the false teachers among 
the Jews, that the opinion has become cur- 
rent that every doctrine held by the Jews, 
or advocated by them, was either wrong in 
itself, or else was a very low and unspiritual 
form of the true doctrine. Hence, to re- 
ceive any truth as the believers before 
Christ received it, is considered as retro- 
grading. This is called Judaizing. And to 
Judaize, in anything, is thought to be another 
scriptural term for returning to " weak and 
beggarly elements." 

But we think that this wholesale condem- 
nation is by no means supported by the 
scriptures. There were some things in 
which the Jews of the apostles' time were 
plainly wrong — and wrong by forgetting to 
" search their own scriptures ;" and hence — 



NOTES. 97 

failing to perceive that the apostles taught 
" none other things than those which the 
prophets and Moses did say should come — 
that Christ should suffer, and that he should 
be the first that should rise from the dead, 
and should show light unto the people, and 
to the Gentiles/' Acts xxvi. 22, 23. Luke 
xxiv. 44-48. But there were far more 
things in which the Jews were as plainly 
right — and right, because they "believed the 
things which are written in the law and in 
the prophets' 9 For example — " They had 
hope towards God, that there shall be a re- 
surrection of the dead, both of the just and 
of the unjust ; which they themselves also al- 
lowed." Acts xxiv. 14, 15. According to 
the scriptures, then, to receive a doctrine as 
it was generally received by the Jews before 
Christ, by no means necessarily proved that 
doctrine as so received to be either wrong or 
incomplete. 

Now, with regard to the particular doc- 
trines advocated by the discourse, we can- 
not perceive the fairness of the reproach. 
We do not Judaize in a bad sense. Let us 
look at the case. There are two forms of 
9 



98 NOTES. 

error mentioned in the scriptures, with 
which the term Judaism is associated in a 
bad sense. The first is the Jewish denial 
that " Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ of 
God/' I John i. 22, — v. 1. But does any 
one really believe the doctrines set forth by 
us as chargeable with this heresy ? The 
other is the early attempt of the " believing 
Pharisees," and others, to maintain that 
the blood of Christ was not of itself suffi- 
cient for salvation; and, therefore, that " it 
was needful to circumcise the Gentiles, and 
to command them to keep the law of 
Moses. 5 ' In other words, the Gentiles must 
become outwardly Jews, or " they could not 
be saved." Acts xv. 1-5. But here, again, 
we cannot believe that our brethren would 
seriously charge us with denying that the 
"blood of Christ cleanses from all sin." 

The slur attached to the name, then, 
being removed from us, we may now return 
and ask — how does the fact that the doc- 
trines we have advocated were received by 
the Jews before Christ, necessarily prove 
that they are wrong ? For what, after all, 



NOTES. 99 

is the faith of true Judaism but the faith of 
Christianity? — such Judaism, for example, 
as Moses had — such as David had — such as 
Paul clung to even after his conversion — 
saying, " hath God cast away his people? 
God forbid ! for / also am an Israelite of the 
seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin' — 
such, indeed, as Jesus himself had, who was 
a Jew to the last ; yea, and to the last pro- 
claims his royal Jewish descent — saying, " I 
am the root and the offspring of David" 

We must protest against this too common 
division of the children of faith, before and 
after Christ, into two antagonistic bands. 
The church is one and her faith is one. 

There were shadows, indeed, in the Jewish 
ritual which pointed to the substance — 
Christ. But the truth itself, w 7 hich was 
taught by both the shadow and the sub- 
stance, was certainly the same. A Jew 
would have been carnal, whether before or 
after Christ, to rest in the shadow, and to 
suppose that the "blood of bulls or goats 
could take away sin" — or "make the comers 
thereunto perfect ;"— or that the mere obser- 



100 NOTES. 

vance of outward ceremonies could make 
reconciliation. There were, indeed, many 
such men in our Lord's time. But yet the 
faith of the true worshipper before Christ 
and of the worshipper after Christ — at the 
altar or at the cross — apprehended the same 
great truth — " Lo I come." The same was 
true of all the other prominent doctrines. 
In other words, we suppose that the faith of 
Moses was throughout very much the same 
thing as the faith of Paul. The various 
articles of the covenant, whether spiritual or 
strictly national — whether common to all the 
spiritual seed of Abraham, or confined to 
those who "were of the circumcision, and 
who also walked in the steps of the faith 
of Abraham," Rom. iv. 12, — were the same, 
so far as they were perceived, in the view of 
the lawgiver and of the apostle. To deny 
this principle, would be, we think, to de- 
stroy the consistency of the word of God. 
It would be to make the promises mean one 
thing one day and a very different thing the 
next. 

We certainly need remind no one of 



NOTES. 101 

Paul's declaration, that the blessings of 
Christianity are all involved in the promise 
made to Abraham : or again — that " we are 
built upon the apostles and prophets, Jesus 
Christ himself" underlying both as " the chief 
corner-stone:" or again — that "in Him all 
the building fitly framed together groweth 
unto a holy temple in the Lord." These 
are trite truths. Surely, then, if of old there 
were special promises made to believing 
Jews as Jews, respecting the kingdom of 
God upon earth, these are not done away in 
Christ, but rather confirmed. For " Jesus 
Christ was the minister of the circumcision, 
for the truth of God, to confirm the promises 
made unto the fathers " — as well as " that the 
Gentiles also might glorify God for his 
mercy." Rom. xv. 8, 9. Jesus Christ, then, 
had a two-fold office ; first — to confirm all 
the promises made to the believing Jew 
(" whose are the fathers ") as such, what- 
ever they might be ; and, secondly — to open 
the door of entrance unto the blessings of 
salvation, to the Gentile, who was before ex- 
cluded from any participation whatsoever. 
9* 



102 NOTES. 

Why, then, if God has made "Israel his 
first-born" — and among the various blessings 
of the covenant has assigned to Israel some 
" gifts and a calling " which were to be 
peculiar to him — should a man be stigmatized 
as a Judaizer for insisting on the first-born's 
covenanted national privileges ? 

But it is still argued — " the middle wall of 
partition is broken down." Very well, so 
it is, and what then ? " Why, we Gentiles, 
who before were shut out, are come into the 
church with the Jews." Agreed — for so 
Paul declares, " We are now of the house- 
hold of God" — what more ? " Why, we 
Gentiles, whose Christ was not and who had 
no hope, may now, as well as the Jew, call 
Christ ours, and rejoice with the Jew in a 
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus 
Christ from the dead." Agreed again — for 
we, who were " without Christ and had no 
hope," are now made partakers of both — 
what more ? " Why, we, with the Jew, 
compose but one church, the one body of 
Christ." Still agreed— for he hath "of 
twain made one new man, so making peace — 



NOTES. 103 

what more ? " Why, the Jew has now no 
privileges whatever in which the Gentiles 
may not equally with him participate. The 
national distinction is for ever abolished." 
No, there we demur; the inference is not 
just. For that assertion would include — not 
only "the blessings in heavenly places in 
which we are made to sit together in Christ 
Jesus ;" but, also — an equal participation by 
Jews and Gentiles in all the arrangements of 
God for carrying, forward and establishing 
his kingdom upon earth and during its con- 
tinuance. Now, this latter, the scriptures, 
we think, plainly deny. They always assign 
to the Jew a pre-eminence in this respect. 
It is a part of the national covenant. They 
do so as regards the past, the present, and 
the future. As to the past (before Christ) 
we are all agreed. As to the present (under 
the gospel) Paul declares that the " Jew has 
much advantage every way." He says ex- 
plicitly, that the gospel comes as " the wis- 
dom of God and the power of God to every 
one," indeed, " that believeth" — but yet " to 
the Jew first" And as to the future — we are 



104 NOTES. 

really at a loss to know how any one can be 
indifferent to the multitude of promises in 
which God predicts the marked pre-eminence 
of the Jewish people in bringing on the final 
establishment of His kingdom upon earth, 
and during its continuance. It is of the 
Jew that God says expressly — concerning the 
future, "when they shall build the old 
wastes/' — that " ye shall be named the Priests 
of the Lord ; men shall call you Ministers of 
our God : for your shame ye shall have 
double, and for confusion they shall rejoice 
in their portion : therefore their land shall 
possess the double ; everlasting joy shall be 
unto them. . . . And their seed shall be 
known among the Gentiles, and their off- 
spring among the people : all that see them 
shall acknowledge them that they are the 
seed which the Lord hath blessed." Is. ch. 
xl., xli., and xlii. Read the whole passage 
through, and see what a prominence is given 
to the Jewish people. And this is but a 
sample of almost numberless texts to the 
same point. 

Whatever annulling, then, there may be of 



NOTES. 105 

all distinction between Jews and Gentiles 
brought in under the gospel, when they 
shall be " glorified together w T ith Christ'' (and 
of this we do not pretend to speak) — yet, as 
to the point which concerns us — viz. the con- 
tinued distinction between Jew and Gentile 
on the earth, and the pre-eminence which is 
assigned to the former throughout the whole 
economy of God respecting His church on 
earth — we think that the Scriptures are very 
explicit. Nor can we deem it to be "beg- 
garly" Judaizing to uphold the same view of 
the case. 

We may add here, that if to put the Jew 
first be heretical Judaizing, then was our 
own Calvin a "ringleader of the sect.'' We 
have already referred to his opinion on this 
subject. But let him be heard at length. 
On Acts xiii. 46 — " It was necessary that the 
word of God should first be preached to you/' — 
he thus holds forth : — " He charges them 
(the Jews) with ingratitude, because they, 
whom God had chosen above all people, 
when Christ offered himself to them, malig- 
nantly rejected so signal a favor. In the 



106 NOTES. 

former clause he refers to the height of honor 
and preferment to which God has raised 
them. Then follows the reproof, because they 
had willingly spurned such a favor. Hence 
he concludes that the time was now arrived 
when the Gospel should be carried to the 
Gentiles. With regard to his saying it was 
necessary to preach to them first, be properly 
has reference to the time of Christ's king- 
dom. For, under the law, before the mani- 
festation of Christ, the Jews were not only 
first, but alone. Moses therefore called them 
a " kingdom of priests," and God's inherit- 
ance. But the adoption of God rested at 
that time among them alone, to the passing 
by of the Gentiles, with this understanding, 
that upon the advent of Christ they should 
still be preferred to the Gentiles, For 
although Christ reconciled the world unto 
the Father, yet those who were already near 
to God, and of his family, were the first in 
order. This, then, was the legitimate order — 
that the apostles should gather the Church 
first from among the Jews, then from among 
the Gentiles ; as was seen in chapter first 



NOTES. 107 

and other places. The fellowship of the Gen- 
tiles was not to deprive the Jews of their right 
of primogeniture, that they should ever cease 
to be pre-eminent in the Church of God. For 
this same reason it is that Paul says, that the 
righteousness of God in the gospel was to be 
manifested first to the Jews and then to the 
Gentiles." 

Note B, p. 36. 

We have endeavored to show the insu- 
perable difficulty which attends the expec- 
tation of " the kingdom" before the second 
advent of Christ. The argument is, that 
such an expectation withdraws the faith, and 
prayer, and hope of the Church from the 
coming of her Lord, and fixes it upon some- 
thing which is to precede that event ; and 
that this contravenes the whole burden of 
Scripture exhortation on the subject. We 
conclude, therefore, that the advent of Christ 
is to be premillennial and not postmillennial. 

Some of our brethren, however, have 
resorted to what they call a third view of the 



108 NOTES. 

millennium. According to this view the 
promises respecting the kingdom are to be 
somehow fulfilled before and somehow ful- 
filled after the advent of our Lord. There 
is to be a state of general felicity beforehand, 
but yet the duration and extent to which 
piety shall prevail are left undetermined. 
The promises are to receive a sort of fulfil- 
ment before Christ's coming, and yet per- 
haps not an adequate fulfilment. 

We do not know that we succeed in pre- 
senting this third view clearly. To say the 
truth, turn it which way we will, it appears to 
us not alittle misty. Todeclarethat theadvent 
is to be premillennial is clear enough. To de- 
clare that the advent is postmillennial is clear 
enough. But to hang betw T een the two 
involves the subject in obscurity. To say 
that " the kingdom" is to be somehow set up 
before the advent, and yet somehow after 
the advent, does really seem to be only taking 
refuge in ambiguity. 

So far, however, as this third view is 
tangible, it does not appear to us, upon re- 
flection, to differ essentially, as to the argu- 



NOTES. 109 

ment, from the second. In other words, 
there is really no third view. There is no 
middle ground. Let us look at the case. 

The point properly at issue may be stated 
thus : Here are " exceeding great and pre- 
cious promises" respecting " the kingdom, 
and the greatness of the kingdom under the 
whole heaven," scattered through the word 
of God. These are called millennial promises. 
We need not stop to prove that they have 
never yet, to the satisfaction of the church 
in general, been even faintly fulfilled. We 
all look for their certain accomplishment. 
They are strictly associated with this earth. 
They exhibit a universality and a complete- 
ness of holiness, such as language could not 
more explicitly declare. Some of them also 
certainly intimate a considerable lapse of 
time. Furthermore : — We may leave out of 
the number, if it be desired, the celebrated pas- 
sage in the 20th chapter of the Revelations. 
Or — if the word millennium is regarded as 
objectionable, we may omit that also. It is 
not the name, but the thing at which we aim. 
Now we argue thus : Whether every soul is 
10 



110 NOTES. 

to be converted, or whether the predicted 
glorious state of the earth is to last a full 
thousand years or not, is not just now ma- 
terial. Here lies the point. Take these 
promises as they stand ; and, in any view of 
the case, a result which will justify such ex- 
pressions—as, for example, " The earth shall 
be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the 
waters cover the sea," and other kindred 
passages — -may well be considered as an ob- 
ject upon which the faith and hope of the 
church may rest, as on a bright spot that is 
not to be all night, as now, but on the con- 
trary a state which might satisfy her most 
ardent aspirations. If, then, this fulfilment 
is to take place before the coming of her 
Lord, she is manifestly wrong if she presents 
that coming (as the Scriptures certainly do) 
as the first dawn of glory and hope to the 
world. She is manifestly wrong if her faith 
continually overleaps such promised bless- 
ings, and groans (as the Scripture writers 
certainly do) for deliverance from them into 
something to come afterwards. Indeed, the 
feeling of the church has ever proved that 



NOTES. Ill 

she regards the fulfilment of the promises re- 
specting the "latter-day" glory (whenever 
that might occur), as the event capable of 
satisfying her most intense longings. The 
cry on all sides has ever been — -" Oh ! for the 
fulfilment of the promises !" — How long, 
Lord !" — " The kingdom predicted ! — the 
kingdom! let it come!" 

The single question then which we would 
ask is this : — Is it meant by this third view 
that the fulfilment of these Scripture promises 
is to take place before the coming of Christ 
or after it ? If the reply be — " before His 
coming : — these promises are first to receive 
a suitable fulfilment ;" — then we ask, is not 
this virtually the same with the second view ? 
In both cases the advent is postponed. The 
coming of Christ is not the first object of 
prayer and hope. The only escape from this, 
which we can see, is, to leave the matter so 
vague and indefinite, that we know not what 
to believe respecting the kingdom, or what to 
hope for. 

If, on the other hand, the reply is — " after 
His coming" — then the first and the third 



112 NOTES. 

views coincide here. We stand on the same 
ground as to this point. The premillennial 
advent is really admitted. The only question 
which now divides us is the question of 
locality. Will this fulfilment of the promises 
take place on this earth or elsewhere ? We 
are agreed — when we pray, " Thy kingdom 
come/' — to associate the advent of Christ and 
the kingdom together. Our only question 
now is — when we add, " Thy will be done on 
earth as it is in heaven/' — do we mean that 
this is to occur on this earth or in some far 
off locality? But this is an independent 
question, and must be discussed by itself. 

We repeat, then, that as to the question 
before us, there is really no middle ground. 
The advent is to be either premillennial or 
postmillennial, and on the one side or the 
other we must take our stand. 

Supposing, however, that we agree as to 
the premillennial advent, and that we are 
divided only on the question of the locality 
of the kingdom, we have now a remark or 
two respecting these separate questions. 



NOTES. 113 

1. In the first place, we are free to say, 
for ourselves, that this preliminary question 
of the advent being thus settled, the way to 
the decision of the other seems short and 
easy. It is difficult to perceive how a man 
can admit a premillennial advent and a sub- 
sequent kingdom such as the Scriptures 
promise, and yet deny that that kingdom is 
to exist upon earth — or, as a consequence, the 
personal reign. Yet we do not press this 
upon our brethren, 

2. In the next place, we as frankly confess, 
on the other hand, that we consider this pre- 
liminary question as, just now, by far the 
more important of the two. It is this gene- 
ral anticipation of the kingdom before the 
advent which is shutting out from the church 
the expectation and the earnest desire for 
Christ's appearing. Here lies the great 
mischief So truly are we convinced of this, 
that — could the church in our land be brought 
back to the point of expecting no glory until 
the second coming of Christ, and so return 
again to the habit of looking, and longing, 
and praying for that coming as the dawn of 

10* 



114 NOTES. 

her " redemption" — could her ministers 
again be brought, constantly to press home 
every duty by the motives derived from that 
advent — we do not know that we should be 
very earnest to say a word more. At any 
rate a great advance in the right direction 
would be gained. Once admit the kingdom 
to be subsequent to the advent, and we 
believe that God's blessing — with the present 
increasing attention that is bestowed upon 
the prophetical Scriptures — would soon lead 
us to proper and quite unanimous views 
respecting the nature of the kingdom itself. 

3. In the third place we must object to the 
very common mode of arguing by con- 
founding these two independent questions 
together. You contend with a man that 
Christ's coming is to be premillennial. He 
replies by running on to what he considers 
the absurdities of the personal reign. But 
this will not do. It confuses things. It pre- 
vents progress. Let us settle one point at a 
time. You expect a coming kingdom ? 
" Yes." You expect Christ's advent also ? 
"Yes." Now let the question of locality 



NOTES. ] 15 

and nature stand by. Will Christ's coming 
take place before or after the kingdom ? Settle 
this first, from the Scriptures, and the way is 
then open for the other. " But the one follows 
certainly upon the other." Very well, be it 
so. Yet to attain to the truth we must take 
one step at a time. You maintain that 
Christ's advent will be postmillennial ? Now 
prove it upon its own grounds. Let this be 
done, and the personal reign will be easily 
disposed of. 

4. One remark more. The position has 
lately been taken — that we cannot decide 
whether Christ is to come before or after the 
promised kingdom. It is said — " Let us adopt 
neither view, for who can tell ?" Now, not 
to be tedious — we may ask in a word, what 
is this but to say that the church, in praying 
and longing for Christ's advent (as the 
Scripture writers certainly do), does not 
know whether she is doing right or wrong ? 
What if the kingdom is to come beforehand ? 
She may then be praying and longing for 
the utter extinction of a time of glory which 
fulfils the promises, and which ought to 



116 NOTES. 

secure her most ardent labors and her most 
joyful anticipations. 

But unite the advent and the kingdom to- 
gether, and all is plain. 

Note C, p. 43. 

The advent and the kingdom are so mani- 
festly connected in the Scriptures, that some 
cannot shut their eyes to this fact. What, then, 
is to be done ? — for they must still have a 
" latter day" glory before the personal advent. 

The difficulty is solved thus. Make the 
coming, spoken of in connexion with the 
kingdom, mean not a personal but a spiritual 
one. This answers the purpose. And so, 
volume after volume appears, in which, by this 
vague accommodation of Scripture terms, the 
Church is actually taught and made to 
believe that — in praying for Christ's advent — 
she is not praying for his personal appearing 
at all, but simply for the outpouring of his 
Spirit. This is so common that we have but 
to turn to almost any popular work on the 
subject of the kingdom of Christ, to find 



NOTES. 117 

examples. We have pointed in another 
place to the ruinous consequences which are 
threatening the Church from this principle. 
We wish, however, here to ask one or two 
questions further. 

1. In the first place. — Is not this at least 
an unwise evasion of a difficulty ? The 
problem is, to place the Church in this 
day, in her prayer for the kingdom, upon 
the same ground with the prophets, apos- 
tles, and the Church of the New Testa- 
ment. Now let the question be fairly asked. 
— When the apostle John prays — " Even so 
come Lord Jesus," — does he refer to the per- 
sonal, visible return of Christ, or not ? Let 
any man examine the immediate context, 
and hear Christ declare — "Behold I come 
quickly, and my reward is with me, to give 
to every man according as his work shall 
be" — and then judge. When Paul bade the 
Thessalonians " wait for God's Son from 
heaven," — did he mean that they should wait 
for the descent of the Holy Spirit into their 
hearts or throughout the world — or did he 
mean the return of Jesus Christ from hea- 



118 NOTES. 

ven ? And so we might go on through all the 
numerous plain passages in which this sub- 
ject is alluded to ? Well, then, if this be so — 
we ask, with real concern — how can we, for 
the sake of sustaining any theory of missions 
satisfy ourselves for leading the Church of 
God to pray for one thing, while the apostles 
and their Churches were taught to pray for 
another ? 

2. We cannot but wonder at the mode 
of reasoning by which this favorite expla- 
nation is attained. The first step is to lay 
it down as a fixed principle, that Christ's 
reign must be only a spiritual one. This 
cannot be given up on any ground. Then, 
as to the coming spoken of in connexion 
with the reign, why, of course this must be 
spiritual too. To be sure there is no resort 
to the context to sift out the real meaning 
of the phrases in question there, No, our 
theory provides for all. The kingdom is 
certainly only spiritual, and hence the coming 
must be spiritual also. Now we submit 
whether it would not be much better, first, 
to settle the meaning of those words, vapoixtia 



NOTES. 119 

and !grKpavs*'a, # by the different contexts ? 
What did the Holy Ghost mean by them ? 
It certainly would be wiser for us to modify 
our theory by the mind of the Spirit, than to 
modify the mind of the Spirit by our theory. 
3. We would ask then in the third place — Do 
the Scriptures plainly use that very frequent 
phrase, " the coming of Christ/' as meaning 
either death or the outpouring of his Spirit ? 
The question is not whether the outpouring 
of the Spirit may accompany Christ's personal 
coming — but is that the meaning; of the com- 
ing itself ? Christ's ascension into heaven was 
followed by the gift of the Spirit. But what 
would be thought of us if w T e should use the 
terms — "Christ's ascension" and the "out- 
pouring of the Holy Spirit " — as equivalent ? 
Why then should " His coming again in like 
manner as he was seen to go into heaven," 
be confounded with the gifts of the Holy 
Ghost ? 

* For the English reader we translate — " presence " and 
" appearing." 



120 NOTES. 

Note D, p. 48. 

It is quite usual to consider this whole 
subject triumphantly settled by the an- 
nouncement of some text in which the king- 
dom of heaven signifies the rule of Christ in 
the heart. — " Does not Christ expressly say 
4 The kingdom of heaven is within you T 
Does not Paul declare positively that ' the 
kingdom of God is not meat and drink, bnt 
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy 
Ghost ?' " — We reply, assuredly they do ; but 
who denies this ? Does anybody doubt, 
that among the various collateral meanings 
of the phrase in the Scriptures, this is one 
meaning ? But what has this to do with the 
point in hand ? We are not speaking of the 
inward, but of the outward kmgdom of God ; — 
of which, however, the universal prevalence 
of the inward is to be one feature. God 
everywhere declares, indeed, that one cha- 
racteristic of that coming kingdom will be — 
his having " written his laws upon men's 
hearts." All its citizens are " made meet for 
the inheritance of the saints in light." This 



NOTES. j 121 

is insisted on throughout the Scriptures. 
But still we ask, what has this to do with the 
question in hand ? We are speaking of the 
visible manifestation of the kingdom. -Is 
there no question as to the time and circum- 
stances of this, because we admit the inward 
reign of grace ? Take our brethren's own 
view. Look forward to their expected 
heaven after the judgment. There the king- 
dom will be in every heart. But certainly 
there will be also an outward manifestation 
of the reign of Christ, visible to all. 

There is one main idea which the Scriptures 
assign to the phrase — " the kingdom of God/' 
— " the kingdom to come," &c. Take some 
examples : — " Lord, remember me when thou 
comest in thy kingdom." — Christ " shall 
judge the quick and dead at his appearing 
and kingdom." — "The angels shall come 
forth and gather out of his kingdom all 
things that offend, and them that do iniquity." 
— " When ye see all these things come to 
pass, know that the kingdom of God is nigh 
at hand f &c. } &c. Certainly the meaning 
11 



122 NOTES. 

here is not grace in the heart. Take also 
the multitude of texts, in the prophets and 
elsewhere, which describe the kingdom with- 
out specifying its name. 

Now the plain question is — Will the 
kingdom in this sense arrive before the 
coming of Christ or after it? — and if 
after it, what will be the characteristics 
of that kingdom, not only in one parti- 
cular, but in all its main particulars ? What 
does it avail, then, to the settlement of these 
questions, to tell us that the kingdom of God 
sometimes means the reign of grace in the 
heart. True ; but this is not the meaning of 
the phrase here; nor is it the prominent 
meaning of the phrase as used throughout the 
Scriptures. And yet there seems to be no 
end to this manner of reply. Just reverse 
the case. Suppose we should argue that 
there could be no reign of God's Spirit in the 
heart, because it is promised that " the king- 
dom and the greatness of the kingdom under 
the whole heaven shall be given to the people 
of the saints of the Most High ?" In other 



NOTES. 123 

words, there can be no inward reign because 
there is to be an outward one. But wherein 
is the opposite deduction the wiser ? 

Note E, p. 67. 

It would not be difficult to refer to whole 
discourses which seem to be alarmed into a 
suppression of part of the truth by the abuses 
of errorists. Now, so far as these discourses 
protest against fixing the time of our Lord's 
advent, we concur with them. Just there 
has been the usual error of fanaticism. When 
they proceed to warn the church that she 
can be prepared for the coming of her Lord, 
only by preparation of the heart and the 
daily fulfilment of her duties, we still rejoice 
in the declaration of such sound views. 
But when these discourses go on to supplant 
the duty of watching by the duty of " work- 
ing while the day lasts," and to insinuate that 
thus our entire obligation will be fulfilled, we 
must object. Why should these duties be 
thought to clash? The same apostle who 
reminds the Thessalonians no less than five 



124 NOTES. 

times of the coming of the Lord — also exhorts 
them " to study to be quiet, and to do their 
own business/' Jesus also declares that 
servant " blessed, whom his Lord, when He 
cometh, shall find so doing." Watch and 
labor. We conceive these duties as per- 
fectly consistent. Neither is to supplant the 
other. Neither can be dispensed with. In- 
deed they are reciprocal aids. We are most 
likely to be watching for the Lord when we 
are most laborious, knowing that " we must 
render an account." And conversely — we 
are most likely to be "steadfast, unmovable, 
always abounding in the work of the Lord," 
when — under the blessed hope of the coming 
of Christ, and the glorious resurrection — we 
are assured that "our labor is not in vain in 
the Lord." 

Another remark. There is the greatest 
difference between the confident expectation 
that the advent of Christ will take place at 
an ascertained time, and so preparing for it; — 
and the command of our Lord to watch for 
it, as an event which may come, and for 
which we are to stand in a waiting attitude. 



NOTES. 125 

His illustration of the porter, waking 
throughout the successive watches of the 
night, is exact. In the former case, all is 
bustle, and confusion, and misdirected labor, 
before the stated time arrives ; and subse- 
quent disappointment begets listlessness and 
often infidelity. In the latter case, every 
duty is fulfilled with calm composure ; — and 
then, though centuries of patient waiting may 
have passed, and three watches of the night 
be gone ; hope is never disposed to sneer out — 
"where is the promise of His coming, for all 
things continue as they were ?" — but still 
longs and waits, and is ready at a moment's 
warning, with her filled, and trimmed, and 
burning lamp, to go forth and meet the 
Bridegroom. 

Is not this a sufficient answer also to the 
frequent objection that "the apostles, after 
all, never expected the coming of Christ as 
impending ?" No, they did not. They al- 
ways taught the church that it was near, 
never that it was imminent (syyvg and fyyixs, 
not svMtjxsv — except in 2 Thess. ii. 2, where 
11* 



126 NOTES. 

the unwarrantable alarm is rebuked). 
Watch for the sun's rising ! But that is very 
different from crying — Behold the first streaks 
of the morning ! Our Lord makes the same 
distinction. We are not to be alarmed when 
they cry, " Lo, here is Christ ;" or, "Lo, He 
is there." " When they say, ' Behold He is 
in the desert/ go not forth; or, 'in the 
secret chambers,' believe it not." But why ? 
Is it because His coming is not to be looked 
for and waited for ? Nay; but because — " as 
the lightning shineth out of the east, even 
unto the west, so shall the coming of the 
Son of Man be:" — sudden, rapid, and "every 
eye shall see Him." 

We refer the reader, on this important 
distinction, to the 9th chapter of the Rev. A. 
Bonar's volume, mentioned below, where 
the above reasoning is presented at length. 
Indeed, the whole book will well repay a 
perusal ; particularly as a reply to the 
arguments of the Rev. Mr. Brown in his 
late work on " The Second Advent." 



NOTES. 127 

Note F, p. 74. 

We must confess ourselves shocked at the 
indifference with which many allow them- 
selves to speak in regard to the return and 
personal presence of our Lord. We could 
wish these brethren just to look — for exam- 
ple, into the opening chapters of the Rev. An- 
drew Bonar's "Redemption Drawing Nigh" — 
to see " w T hat our fathers felt regarding the 
second coming of Christ." Some of these 
were men too who had no settled opinion 
respecting the subsequent establishment of 
the kingdom upon the earth. There was 
one point, however, fixed in their minds. 
This was, that the first dawn of hope for the 
world would be the appearance of Christ. 

In this connexion we may refer to the 
method of decrying this longing for the 
return of Christ, under the plea that this is to 
undervalue the inward presence of the Holy 
Spirit. " We are under the ministration of the 
Spirit ; and why wish this suspended, to gain 
Christ's personal presence — had not the unbe- 



128 NOTES. 

lieving Jews this latter ? The ministration of 
the Spirit is better for us than the carnal 
presence of Christ." Such, if we understand 
him, is the meaning of the respected author* 
of the discourse on " The Ministration of the 
Spirit." We select the words of this " bro- 
ther beloved," for the very reason that they 
show how we are misinterpreted by those 
whom we most esteem for their piety and 
faithfulness ; and whose censure is therefore 
the more difficult to bear. 

"If I read the Bible aright," says he, 
" the only throne which the Redeemer is ever 
to set up on earth, is a throne in the heart. 
What, if the incarnate Son of God should 
descend from heaven and take up his abode 
among men, would this be better for a dying 
world than the ministration of the Spirit ? 
# # # # j can never be unmindful of the 
divinely attested fact, that we have already 
a gift which is far more valuable than the 
personal presence of the Saviour could pos- 
sibly be. # # # For the world I would 

* Rev. Dr. Magie of Elizabethtown. — See Nat. Preacher 
for Jan. 1845. 



NOTES. 129 

not turn off the eves of men from the minis- 
tration of the Spirit to any theory more 
palpable, or visible, or externally impressive. 
Living as we do in the midst of the Spirit's 
reign, # # # what can we wish or wait 
for more ? It is altogether a retrograde 
movement to be talking now of a re visible 
throne and an imposing ritual. It is enough 
for me to have the sceptre of the blessed 
Jesus swayed over my affections." Such is 
the frequent strain of sermons on this topic. 
Verbal objections to the same effect are not 
unusual. 

Now, with all due kindness, we say that 
this is entirely to misstate the point 
at issue. The question is not, whether the 
bodily presence of the Bridegroom — even as 
a glorious King — without His Spirit, is better 
than His Spirit's inward teachings without 
His bodily presence. We know of no mille- 
narian who avows that the unbelieving Jew 
of Christ's day was better off than is the 
humble believer in our own. But this is the 
question. Granting that the Spirit is already 
possessed : is not the Bridegroom's presence 



130 NOTES. 

better than the Bridegroom's absence ? Our 
brethren seem continually to forget, when 
talking in this strain, that God proclaims it 
over and over, as a universal feature on the 
return of the King and the setting up of the 
kingdom, that his law shall be written upon 
every heart. What is this but the vivifying 
influence of the Holy Ghost on the soul ? 

Another remark. One would think that 
the very name applied to the blessed Spirit 
in this very connexion, would have satisfied 
these brethren that their undervaluing 
Christ's personal presence is wrong. The 
Holy Ghost is there called the Comforter. But 
who wants comfort but the mourner ? And 
w T herefore are we mourners ? Christ tells 
us. Because he hath left us, therefore " sorrow 
has filled our hearts." We mourn " because 
the Bridegroom is taken away from us." 
Surely, then, his return is greatly to be" 
desired. 

But turn to the passage itself (John 
xiv. — xvii.), and read it through, and see if 
the following truths are not clearly taught. 

1st. That on Christ's leaving the world, the 



NOTES. 131 

rich gifts of the Spirit were secured and 
poured forth.— ,; If I go not away the Com- 
forter will not come to you. but if I go away 
I will send him to you.'"'* Hence "it was 
expedient" that he should go to the Father. 

2dly. That Christ's return is not to dispense 
with the Spirit's presence, as our brethren 
seem to insinuate against us. — " I will give 
you another Comforter, even the Spirit of 
truth, that he may abide with you for ever.'*' 
Christ's return, then, does not take away the 
Spirit's presence ; it only superadds his own. 

3dly. That one of the Spirit's present offices 
is to sustain the soul of the believer under 
the privation of Christ's presence. 

4thly. That Christ guarantees, in this very 
connexion, that the Spirit's presence is not all 
that is to be expected : for he adds in the 
next verse. "I will not leave you comfortless 
(orphans),, /will come to you.''' And again, 
" Do you inquire of that I said, a little 
while and ye shall not see me, and again, a 
little while and ye shall see me, and because 
I go unto the Father. Verily, verily. I say 
unto you, ye shall weep and lament, but the 



132 NOTES. 

world shall rejoice, and ye shall be sorrowful, 
but your sorrow shall be turned into joy ; 
and ye now therefore have sorrow, but / will 
see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, 
and your joy no man taketh from you." 
Could words say more plainly that the gra- 
cious presence of the blessed Spirit detracts 
nothing from the desirableness of our Lord's 
return J We cannot cease from wondering, 
therefore, that our brethren allow themselves 
to use such language as we have quoted. 

Note G, p. 77. 

When the charge of carnality has been 
fairly sifted, it is difficult to detect the 
ground of this frequent reproach cast upon 
the earnest desire for our Lord's return, 
and especially upon the doctrine of His 
continued personal presence with the re- 
deemed on this earth. We really cannot 
feel the force of the objection. After due 
deliberation upon the various statements to 
this effect, the conclusion seems irresistible, 
that the whole charge is referable to the 



NOTES. i33 

mere change of place. For the glorious 
kingdom to be far off, is spiritual — but to set 
it up here makes it carnal. But how can 
mere locality produce such an effect ? 

There seems to be an impression that any 
association of Christ and His glorified saints 
with this earth is degrading to them. The 
earth has so long been the scene of corruption, 
and sin, and disorder, that there is an anxiety 
to get as far as possible away from it. Some 
seem unable to conceive how it can ever 
become a fit place for the scenes which are 
to follow the resurrection of the dead. But 
these objections leave out of view that it is 
to be a renovated earth. " There shall be 
no more curse." — " He that sitteth upon the 
throne says, Behold I make all things new." — 
Such is to be the glorious condition of the 
" new heavens and the new earth/' that the 
" former shall not be remembered nor come 
into mind." As to mere locality then, why 
may not this earth be rendered by God as 
suitable a place for the " kingdom of His 
Son" as any other? What is there in this 
material earth that is of itself corrupting to 
12 



134 NOTES. 

a holy nature, or that puts it out of the 
power of God so to change and adorn the 
earth as becomes the residence of His holy 
people ? 

But this objection is so common that 
we must be indulged in a few remarks 
further : 

I. Take this earth even in its present state, 
under the curse. What power has associ- 
ation with it to destroy the spirituality of a 
holy man in any of the duties of life ? Was 
Jesus any the less holy or spiritual in the sight 
of the Father because He walked among men, 
and was "made in all things like unto His 
brethren?" Condescension does not imply 
degradation, nor does it imply the least loss 
of spirituality. Was Jesus any more carnal 
when " He eat and drank with His disciples 
during forty days after His passion" than 
He is now, when at the right hand of the 
Father? Why then should He and His 
people be rendered more carnal when the 
humiliation is passed and the curse is re- 
moved, because their glorious reign shall be 



NOTES. 135 

manifested here rather than elsewhere ? 
The corrupt earth could not make them 
carnal, why should the renewed, earth do 
so ? 

2. Take the admitted views of our brethren 
respecting heaven itself. Suppose the 
" kingdom upon earth" to have passed away. 
The earth is now destroyed, and the whole 
Church is glorified and dwells in some re- 
mote habitation. This they call heaven. 
But even there, are there not " thrones, and 
principalities, and powers ?" Is not " Christ 
head over all ?" Do " not the saints reign 
kings and priests for ever?" But what if 
you now just imagine the renewed earth itself 
to be that habitation ? Is the spirituality 
of the place suddenly deteriorated ? Can 
we conceive of any more spirituality in the 
one case than in the other? We think 
not. 

It is trifling to be cavilling about the stones 
of Christ's palace, or the material fabric of 
His throne. If these things were really in- 
volved in the question, we might reply that 



136 NOTES, 

we pretend not " to be wise above what is 
written." Perhaps, also, questions on these 
points would be quite as difficult to answer on 
the theory of a distant heaven as on our own. 
But these things do not enter into the 
question. The only essential point here is, 
that both sides thus admit that Christ is to 
be somewhere a visible reigning King over 
the <; nations of the saved." Now, if He 
can be so without a loss of spirituality in 
one place, why not in another ? To our 
mind there is no conceivable reason against 
it : — unless, indeed, we take up with the notion 
that a condition is the more spiritual in pro- 
portion as it eludes our comprehension and 
becomes shadowy. In this case the argu- 
ment is, that a distant heaven is more 
spiritual, only because it is supposed to be 
more ethereal. We must frankly confess our 
persuasion that this, after all, is the real foun- 
dation of much that is objected on this score. 

3. Take, in the next place, the commou 
view of the millennial kingdom which many 
anticipate before Christ's advent, Suppose 



NOTES. 137 

this kingdom come. The earth is now " full 
of the knowledge of the Lord." We ask 
now — where is Christ the king ? It is re- 
plied, " He is in some distant, invisible 
place, which we call heaven." " In His 
human nature, as ' God manifest in the 
flesh?'" "Yes; the same." "And He 
reigns there ?" " Yes." " And looks down 
thence upon His distant kingdom ?" " Yes." 
"Well, is this carnal?" "No; this is a 
spiritual view." Now suppose that instead 
of remaining away from this renewed earth, 
Jesus should draw near with His host of holy 
and glorified saints, and take up His abode in 
immediate proximity to it. Suppose, fur- 
ther, that a*t the same time, He should open 
the eyes of the holy inhabitants of the earth 
to behold His glorious dwelling-place — " the 
tabernacle of God with men," — and that the 
nations should walk in the light of His 
glory. — " What would this be ?" This, it 
seems, is thought to be carnal. Now we 
must confess our utter incapacity to detect 
the reason why this simple change of place 
12* 



138 NOTES. 

should infuse the element of carnality into 
the scene. 

4. Take the present earth before the fall. 
Our brethren are all willing to admit that 
had Adam continued sinless — had no curse 
been imposed — and had his descendants ever 
remained a faithful, holy race, " hearing the 
voice of the Lord " walking continually 
among them — this would have been spiritual 
indeed. In truth, God himself has declared 
such a state " all very good," and who shall 
gainsay it ? 

But, to expect a renewed earth " wherein 
dwelleth righteousness/' — to behold there 
the wonderful mystery of "Gdd, manifest 
in the flesh," with a glorified body, " like 
unto his brethren," — to see Him " the second 
Adam" there, ruling over the men whose 
flesh he had " quickened," and had refined 
and exalted in this quickening, so as to fit it 
to " inherit incorruption" and " the kingdom 
of God," — in a word, instead of this earth in 
its former state, where all men would be 
holy, indeed, but yet only feeble men — -and 



NOTES. 139 

their habitation glorious indeed, but yet only 
glorious as was the first paradise, — to 
expect to see this earth exalted and puri- 
fied, — " death swallowed up in victory/' — 
the grave made a place of refining, — men 
clothed with spiritual bodies, — the Head o 
all, the second Adam, not merely a living 
soul, but a quickening spirit, — God not only 
walking with men, as in Eden, but "dwelling 
with them," — the whole " groaning creation 
delivered from the bondage of corruption 
into the glorious liberty of the children of 
God," — and the earth thus exhibiting, as 
completed, God's original purpose in its 
creation, in "the kingdom preparedfor its 
inhabitants before the foundation of the 
world" — ah! why is all this to be esteemed 
as carnal ? 

On the whole, then, we cannot find it in 
us to affect, as some do, such a contempt for 
this " earth which the Lord has given to the 
children of men," and M in the habitable 
parts" of which the Son of man " rejoiced " 
because " his delights were with the sons of 



140 NOTES. 

men." Nor can we go so far in our zeal for 
spirituality as to declare with some "that 
when we leave this earth, and behold the 
glories of heaven, we shall never wish to 
return to this former wretched abode of 
mortality." We must believe that our 
heaven will be wherever our Lord shall be. 
If he shall see fit to return hither " with ten 
thousand of his saints/' we shall rejoice 
to return with him ; yea, and to remain 
here as long as He does. Moreover, inas- 
much as God has " founded this earth upon 
the seas, and established it upon the floods/ 5 
so that " it cannot be removed," but " abideth 
for ever:" — if He shall see good — after " shak- 
ing once more the heavens and the earth," so 
that the " things capable of being shaken 
may be removed," and that " those which 
cannot be shaken may remain," — to fit up 
this renovated earth for the " kingdom which 
cannot be moved," so that the " meek may 
inherit the earth,"— -we believe that we shall 
there see reasons enough, and glory enough, 
yes, and spirituality enough too, to cry — " Let 
me see the good of thy chosen, that I may 



NOTES. 141 

rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I 
may glory with thine inheritance:" let 
" my eyes see the King in his beauty, and 
behold the land that is very far off." 

Note H, p. 78. 

We use the terms literal and figurative, 
in the limited sense usually accepted in this 
controversy. In fact, the appellatives, lite- 
ralists and spiritualists, are not strictly de- 
scriptive on either side. The former admit 
that much of the language of Scripture is 
figurative ; and the latter as strenuously in- 
sist that much, even in the prophecies, is to 
be taken literally. 

A very pleasant way of putting down 
the literalist (as the phrase goes) is to 
quote sundry passages of Scripture, and 
then make merry, at his expense, over 
" wines on the lees" — '•' rivers of water 
flowing from the belly," and the like. We 
should have been spared many a pang, in- 
flicted by beloved brethren, if the simple fact 
mentioned above had been heeded, 



142 NOTES. 

A more serious method is, to refer to some 
prophecy, and then because certain words 
therein are manifestly figurative, triumphantly 
to inquire whether the whole is not a mere 
figure. Thus because " Israel is to blossom 
and bud;" Israel itself must be a figurative ex- 
pression ; — the subject as well as the thing 
predicated. But who ever uses figures thus ? 
Would not this be to strip language at once 
of all definite meaning ? Take the Bible 
and read at the first opening. — " And the Lord 
came unto Abraham, saying, I am thy shield 
and thy exceeding great reward. " Here 
shield is plainly figurative. Open at the 
poetry. — " But I am like a green olive tree 
in the house of God." Figure again. Now 
did God in the first case, and did David in 
the second mean himself, or not ? If not, 
whom did he mean ? A very prolific ques- 
tion when that door is once opened. 

Our objection then to the interpretations 
of some of our brethren, is not that they re- 
fuse to divest the Scriptures of all figurative 
language ; but that they insist upon con- 



NOTES. 143 

sidering passages and expressions as figu- 
rative when nothing in the context demands 
or justifies it. 

On this subject we submit a few general 
principles. 1. That God uses language in 
addressing us just as we use it to each other. 
2. Where figures (not symbols) are intro- 
duced, it is for the purpose of light and im- 
pressiveness, not to darken and bewilder. 
The embroidered imagery upon the cur- 
tains of the tabernacle carries the mind the 
more naturally and directly to the wonders 
within the veil. 3. That no single, com- 
prehensive rule applicable to the undiscrimi- 
nating measurement of every passage can 
be adopted. Light can be obtained only by 
the particular examination of each passage 
individually. How far is this text figurative ? 
How far is it literal ? 

We take this opportunity to express., in 
common with many others, our obligations 
to the editor of the ' Theological and Lite- 
rary Journal/ for his, valuable labors in this 



144 NOTES. 

department. We hail his efficient aid the 
more joyfully, as we have long felt that the 
accurate adjustment of the laws of figurative 
and symbolical language and their proper 
application verse by verse, to the prophetical 
Scriptures, has been the grand desideratum 
in this controversy. We hesitate not to 
declare our conviction that this would go 
further to give the church a clear under- 
standing of " the things which are freely 
given to us of God" than volumes of learned 
discussion in other directions, however use- 
ful the latter may be in its proper place. 

Note I, p. 83. 

Every day confirms our persuasion of the 
danger of the prevailing mode of speaking 
of the coming of our Lord as if it were a 
figurative expression. The time of death — 
the destruction of Jerusalem — as well as the 
outpouring of the Spirit, to which we have 
already referred, are repeatedly spoken of in 
such a way as to leave the impression on the 
church that these things may be regarded as 



NOTES. 145 

a proper fulfilment of the phrase. If the 
church will admit and will sustain such an 
interpretation, what can be expected but just 
such results as already begin to dawn ? We 
may refer, in this connexion, to a book* 
which has appeared within a few days, in 
which the w T hole drift of the author is to 
maintain the proposition that " The second 
coming of Christ with its associate events — 
the end of the world ; the resurrection of 
the dead and .the general judgment — must 
already have taken place ; and all expecta- 
tion of these events, as still future, are for- 
hidden by the Scriptures" This is a bold 
step, but we think a very natural one. We 
cannot help regarding this book as the ne- 
cessary result of the prevailing mode of 
speaking respecting the kingdom and the 
advent of our Lord. For, what concerns 
us most is, that the author of the book in 
question undertakes to prove his point upon 
the admitted principles of those who adopt 
the common theory of a spiritual reign. The 
book is well worthy of attention. We ask 

* " The Second Advent/' &c., by Alpheus Crosby. 
13 



146 NOTES. 

our brethren seriously to look at it. If such 
indications as this do not open our eyes to 
the importance of this subject, our apathy 
will only be another " sign of the times/' 
Here is the dearest hope of the church 
struck at, and that too with a sword pro- 
fessedly taken from her own armory. We 
will hope, however, for better things. But 
is it not a little startling that this century 
should witness the revival of the old heresy, 
" that the resurrection is past already ?" 
Some may disregard this, on account of the 
quarter from whence it comes. They will 
wait for some defection in the orthodox 
portion of the church itself. But the sapper 
generally begins his work at some distance 
from the walls. Besides, we believe that 
such a doctrine could not be ably started 
from any quarter — and particularly with this 
vantage ground which orthodox men have 
themselves afforded, by their interpretations, 
— without " overthrowing the faith of some." 
The apostle John tells us of a form of anti- 
christ (2 John v. 7) which denies that " Jesus 
Christ is to come in the flesh :" (spx°l* svov > not 



NOTES. 147 

eXriXvAora* as in 1 John iv. 2.) But we 
should hardly have so soon expected any 
signs of its approach. We know also who 
has told us that the full grown form of this 
infidelity is yet to be manifested in the last 
days, saying, " Where is the promise of his 
coming ?'' 2 Pet. iii. 3, 4. Is there not 
special need then just now of the apostle's 
added injunction: — " Let us look to ourselves, 
that we lose not those things that we have 
wrought, but that we receive a full reward ?" 
2 John v. 8. 

* " To come," not " has come" as in the English 
version. 



THE 

THEOLOGICAL AND LITERARY JOURNAL, 

EDITED BY DAVID N. LORD. 

PUBLISHED BY FRANKLIN KNIGHT, 

At Three Dollars a Year, Payable in Advance. 

This periodical is issued quarterly, on the 1st of July, 
October, January, and April ; each number containing 
usually 176 pages. Its primary design is to point out the 
defects of the prevailing methods of interpreting the Prophe- 
tic Scriptures, and unfold their meaning in accordance with 
the true principles of language and the revealed laws of 
symbolic representation. 

Another of its leading objects is the analysis of the 
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and exposure and refutation of the false and infidel princi- 
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The Journal commenced in July, 1848. The No. for 
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All who desire to obtain the work will address the pub- 
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JVew York, Feb. 1850. 



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